Indonesia arrests eFishery start-up founder over alleged fraud
After selling itself as a disruptive business offering fish and shrimp farmers an online platform for "feed, financing and market", it fell from grace in late 2024 when former chief executive Gibran Huzaifah was suspended over revenue irregularities.
Gibran and two former executives were named as suspects and recently arrested over allegations they manipulated the company's books, said Helfi Assegaf, the national police director of special economic crime.
"The three collaborated to carry out fraud and embezzlement on the investment process of eFishery by marking up the investment," he told reporters Tuesday.
They were accused of inflating the tech unicorn's revenue and profit to lure investment.
The police official did not say if the three had been formally charged.
Helfi said nearly a million dollars had been embezzled from the firm.
"The initial figure that we can already prove is 15 billion rupiah (US$915,499)," he said.
"It's still under process. We also are carrying out an audit of financial reports and the use of money."
In an interview with Bloomberg published in April, Gibran admitted to manipulating eFishery's financial statements, but denied stealing any money.
The trio have been in custody since Jul 31, according to Indonesian police-run site Tribratanews.
After Gibran's suspension, the firm laid off most employees and appointed a consulting firm as its new management team this year, according to local media reports.
The company was once valued at US$1.4 billion dollars but an internal probe found it had inflated its accounts and incurred investor losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, Bloomberg reported.
Earlier this year, the startup appointed business advisory firm FTI Consulting as its new management.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Germany's SAP to invest 150 million euros in Vietnam R&D centre
HANOI :German software maker SAP will invest 150 million euros ($175.13 million) in a research and development centre in Vietnam over the next five years, the firm said on Thursday. SAP Labs Vietnam will be located in the business hub Ho Chi Minh City and will have 500 employees by 2027, it said in a statement. ($1 = 0.8565 euros)
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Huawei's joint EV brand with Chery pledges $1.4 billion new investment
BEIJING :Huawei's joint electric vehicle brand with Chery said on Thursday that it will invest more than 10 billion yuan ($1.39 billion) and expand its research and development team to 5,000 people. It did not give a timeline for the move, which it said aims to strengthen the brand's lead in technology terms, according to a WeChat post. A new company was also created to integrate production, sales and services. ($1 = 7.1774 Chinese yuan renminbi)
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Vietnam inflation under control but pressure building, central bank governor says
HANOI :Vietnam's inflation remains under control but upward price pressures are building up, the governor of the country's central bank said on Thursday. "The adjustments in prices for electricity, medical services and housing have been putting pressure on input costs and pushing core inflation up continuously in recent months," Nguyen Thi Hong told a cabinet meeting, according to a government statement. The Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse aims to keep inflation in the range of 4.5 per cent-5.0 per cent this year. Low inflation will give the central bank room to boost lending to meet this year's economic growth target of at least 8 per cent. "Inflation can emerge very quickly, and once it rises, it is very difficult to tame," Hong warned. "This is the reason why (the central bank) needs to manage the monetary policies in a proactive and prudent manner," she added. Consumer prices in July rose 3.19 per cent from a year earlier, according to government data released on Wednesday. Core inflation in the month rose 3.3 per cent from a year earlier. Hong said the central bank is closely monitoring the flows of money into the local real estate and stock markets, saying that they have been stronger recently but are in line with government efforts to tackle difficulties faced by the property market. She said loans for the stock markets account for only 1.5 per cent of banks' total lending and "this doesn't pose any threat to the banking system."
