JAKARTA, Indonesia – In a high-profile trial that has gripped national public attention, Indonesian prosecutors formally called Wednesday for an 18-year prison sentence for Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the former Indonesian education minister and co-founder of Southeast Asian tech giant Gojek, over allegations of corruption tied to a pandemic-era school laptop procurement program.
The case revolves around the national government’s 2020–2022 initiative to source Google Chromebook laptops for students moving to remote learning during COVID-19, a program prosecutors say caused roughly $125 million in total losses to Indonesian state coffers. Prosecutors submitted additional demands to the Jakarta Corruption Court: a 1 billion rupiah fine (equivalent to approximately $57,180), and an order for the seizure of Makarim’s personal assets if he fails to return 809 billion rupiah ($48.2 million) directly linked to the procurement scheme, plus 4.8 trillion rupiah ($275.4 million) in assets the prosecution has labeled unexplained wealth. If Makarim does not meet the restitution requirements within one month of a final guilty verdict, the proposal would add an extra nine years to his prison term.
Makarim, 40, first rose to prominence as the entrepreneur who revolutionized Indonesia’s gig economy by transforming the traditional informal motorcycle taxi (locally called ojek) sector into the regulated ride-hailing platform Gojek, which later merged to become GoTo Group. He was tapped to serve as Indonesia’s education minister from 2019 to 2024, and was arrested in September 2024 following a months-long investigation into the Chromebook procurement. Earlier this week, judges granted a request to move him from pre-trial detention to house arrest to allow for recovery after a recent surgery.
Prosecutors allege Makarim abused his cabinet position to personally enrich himself through the procurement program, claiming he pressured Google to make a $787 million investment in Gojek’s parent company PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (PT AKAB) in exchange for awarding the government laptop contract to Chromebook. The prosecution pushed back on testimony from three former Google executives, who previously told the court the tech giant’s investment in GoTo was entirely independent of the Indonesian government’s procurement decision. Prosecutors argued to the three-judge panel that the two deals were undeniably linked, framing Google’s investment as a mutually beneficial arrangement that directly shaped the official Chromebook procurement policy.
The trial has drawn consistent public interest, with hundreds of former and current ojek motorcycle taxi drivers regularly packing court hearings to show solidarity with the founder who lifted millions of informal drivers out of poverty through Gojek’s platform.
A verdict from the judge panel is expected in the coming weeks. If convicted, Makarim will receive one of the harshest corruption sentences handed down in modern Indonesian history. The former minister has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and condemned the prosecution’s sentencing request as excessive and unwarranted.
Speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s hearing, Makarim emphasized that the wealth cited by prosecutors stems from his legitimate stake in Gojek, a company he built that created hundreds of thousands of jobs across Indonesia. He noted the total proposed sentence could reach 27 to 28 years with the additional penalty for non-payment of restitution — a term far longer than those given to many convicted violent offenders. He added there is “no administrative violation and no element of corruption” in his actions, and pointed out that the restitution demand far exceeds his actual total net worth.
Makarim has long maintained that all procurement decisions for the Chromebook program were made by career technical officials, not by him as minister. His legal team has also highlighted that Makarim fully divested his shares in PT AKAB before taking public office, and that his personal wealth actually declined over the course of his tenure as education minister.