Does Gojek co-founder’s guilty verdict test Indonesia’s investor climate?

Indonesia’s former education minister Nadiem Makarim, one of the country’s best-known tech founders, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after a Jakarta court found him guilty of abusing his authority in a corruption case linked to US$87 million in state losses.

The verdict against the Gojek co-founder could unsettle business sentiment and dampen foreign investment appetite in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, adding to concerns about legal certainty in cases involving government procurement and the technology sector, observers said.

Nadiem co-founded ride-hailing giant Gojek in 2010 and served as its chief executive until 2019, when he resigned to join former president Joko Widodo’s second-term cabinet as education minister.

On Tuesday, a five-judge panel at the Jakarta Corruption Court found the 41-year-old guilty of abuse of authority regarding the procurement of more than 1 million Chromebook laptops for schools in remote and underdeveloped regions between 2020 and 2022, a project the court said caused state losses.

His prison sentence was lighter than the 18 years prosecutors sought.

Nadiem was also ordered to pay a fine of 1 billion rupiah (US$55,870) and 809 billion rupiah in restitution, with failure to settle the latter resulting in an additional five years in prison. Prosecutors had demanded 5.6 trillion rupiah in total restitution.