Indonesian prosecutors seek 18 years for Nadiem Makarim

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Indonesian prosecutors have sought a 18-year prison sentence for Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim over alleged corruption in a multitrillion-rupiah government program to procure laptops for schools during his tenure as education minister.

During a hearing at the Central Jakarta Court on 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 (US$57,200).

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 centers on the more-than-10 trillion rupiah (US$572 million) program 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 favoring 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 (US$124.7 million).

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.

Prosecutors also sought additional penalties for Nadiem, including about 809 billion rupiah (US$46.3 million) in restitution and 4.8 trillion rupiah (US$274.6 million) 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 program was designed to accelerate digital education during pandemic-era school closures and that procurement decisions followed existing regulations.