JAKARTA – Indonesia handed eFishery founder Gibran Huzaifah a nine-year prison sentence on April 29, concluding a high-profile US$300 million (S$383 million) financial scandal that destroyed one of South-east Asia’s most celebrated start-ups.
Its collapse dealt a blow to several of the world’s highest-profile investors from Singapore’s Temasek to Japan’s SoftBank Group and to Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and Abu Dhabi’s 42XFund.
The verdict, delivered at the Bandung District Court, comes about a year after Gibran gave Bloomberg News a detailed account of how he falsified accounts at a company once valued north of US$1 billion. A panel of judges found Gibran, the former chief executive officer of the embattled start-up, guilty of embezzlement and money laundering.
The ruling caps a spectacular fall from grace for eFishery, once heralded as the crown jewel of Indonesia’s agritech sector. The trial – closely watched by venture capital circles – marks a rare instance of a well-known tech founder in South-east Asia facing criminal charges. Gibran’s company racked up some US$300 million of investor losses to become one of the region’s biggest start-up failures.
Visibly shaken and in tears, Gibran and his family present at the court hugged each other after the verdict was announced. The former CEO was also ordered to pay a fine of 1 billion rupiah (S$74,000). He has seven days to appeal the ruling.
EFishery’s ultimate collapse dealt a blow to several of the world’s highest-profile investors from Singapore’s Temasek to Japan’s SoftBank Group and to Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and Abu Dhabi’s 42XFund.
Temasek co-led a US$90 million investment round in 2022 and took part in a US$200 million round in 2023. Following these rounds, reports indicate Temasek then held approximately 5 per cent of eFishery.
The start-up, which deployed feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, incurred several hundred million dollars in losses between 2018 and 2024. The business began unraveling after a board investigation revealed the company may have inflated its revenue and profit over several years.
The scandal triggered widespread scrutiny over regulatory oversight and due diligence standards in South-east Asia’s venture capital markets.
Gibran’s nine-year sentence is slightly shorter than the 10 years originally proposed by state prosecutors in April. Prosecutors had accused Gibran and two other executives of causing losses to the start-up of more than 69 billion rupiah and damaging investor confidence, noting the defendants showed no remorse during the proceedings.
During an earlier plea hearing, Gibran delivered an emotional defense, denying personal enrichment and pleading with judges to not consider this as a criminal case.
“If, in leading a company scaling and evolving so rapidly, I am accused of making administrative errors, I am ready to be held accountable civilly,” Gibran said, according to a text of his speech sent by his representatives. “Sentencing me to 10 years in prison for a crime where the intent, the act, and the personal flow of funds were never proven, is an injustice that will destroy the precedent for any child of the nation who wants to innovate.”
“Do not rob me of 10 productive years that I could use to once again contribute to the Indonesian nation,” he said. BLOOMBERG
