Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim faces 18-year jail demand in Indonesia laptop graft trial

[JAKARTA] Indonesian prosecutors have sought a 18-year prison sentence for former education minister and Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim over alleged corruption in a multitrillion-rupiah government programme to procure laptops for schools during his tenure in office.

During a hearing at the Central Jakarta Court on Wednesday (May 13), prosecutors accused Nadiem of abusing his authority at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology to approve a large-scale procurement of Google’s Chromebook laptops that allegedly violated public procurement rules.

In addition to the prison term, prosecutors are also seeking a fine of one billion rupiah (S$72,500).

They also demanded that if the fine is not paid, the defendants’ assets should be seized. If that is insufficient, an additional 190 days in jail would be imposed.

The 41-year-old tech entrepreneur has been charged with committing unlawful acts to enrich himself, others or corporations, causing losses to state finances, under Indonesia’s anti-corruption law.

The case centres on the more-than-10 trillion rupiah programme launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to equip schools with digital learning devices, at a time when Nadiem was minister and overseeing the initiative.

Prosecutors alleged that the ministry pushed through a policy favouring Chromebook devices despite concerns over compatibility with Indonesia’s digital infrastructure.

Court documents showed that several vendors later sold the laptops to the government at inflated prices, contributing to estimated state losses of more than 2.18 trillion rupiah.

Prosecutors argued that Nadiem approved the procurement scheme despite internal warnings and irregularities in the tender process. They said that the policy decision opened the door for suppliers to secure contracts under terms that were detrimental to the state.

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Prosecutors also sought additional penalties for Nadiem, including about 809 billion rupiah in restitution and 4.8 trillion rupiah in compensation.

They said the “replacement money” reflects assets held by the defendant that are disproportionate to his lawful income, or are suspected to have originated from corruption.

Nadiem, who founded ride-hailing and technology platform Gojek before joining then president Joko Widodo’s cabinet in 2019, has consistently denied wrongdoing.

His legal team said that the programme was designed to accelerate digital education during pandemic-era school closures and that procurement decisions followed existing regulations.

Nadiem’s lawyers said that his health has deteriorated in recent weeks.

They said that the former minister has been under house detention since Tuesday, after his medical condition worsened. He was scheduled to undergo surgery on Wednesday, the same day prosecutors delivered their sentencing demand.

The defence will present their formal plea on Jun 2. A final verdict from the panel of judges is expected sometime later in the month.

The trial marks another chapter in one of Indonesia’s most closely scrutinised corruption cases involving a prominent technology entrepreneur who later entered the government.

The scandal has also caught the attention of investors, many of whom saw Harvard-educated Nadiem as a symbol of Indonesia’s rising digital economy after he built Gojek into the country’s first unicorn.

The ride-hailing startup, which reached a valuation of more than US$1 billion in 2016, merged with e-commerce platform Tokopedia in 2021 to form GoTo Group.

Nadiem was first charged in September 2025 and is being tried along with four others.

Among them is Ibrahim Arief, a former vice-president of engineering and research at Indonesian e-commerce firm Bukalapak, who later served as a consultant to the education ministry.

Ibrahim was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for his role in the corruption case linked to the laptop procurement programme.