eFishery Founder Gibran Huzaifah Jailed Nine Years for Embezzlement as Agritech Unicorn’s Collapse Deepens
eFishery Founder Jailed Nine Years as Indonesia Court Delivers Verdict on Agritech Fraud
An Indonesian court has sentenced Gibran Huzaifah, co-founder and former chief executive of agritech startup eFishery, to nine years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering, delivering a formal reckoning for one of Southeast Asia’s most high-profile startup collapses.
Judges at a court in Bandung handed down the sentence on Wednesday, April 29, according to a verdict sheet published on the court’s website. The ruling follows an investigation launched in 2024 after a formal complaint was filed against Gibran and a second individual, identified only by the initial C, for misconduct at the company.
From Unicorn to Criminal Conviction
eFishery had positioned itself as a disruptive force in aquaculture, offering fish and shrimp farmers an integrated online platform covering feed, financing, and market access. At its peak, the company carried a valuation of US$1.4 billion, securing it a place among Southeast Asia’s rare agritech unicorns.
That reputation unravelled in late 2024 when Gibran was suspended amid revelations of revenue irregularities. An internal investigation subsequently found the company had systematically inflated its financial accounts, resulting in investor losses running into hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Bloomberg.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Gibran admitted to manipulating eFishery’s financial statements, though he denied personally stealing any funds. The court’s verdict suggests judges found otherwise, or at minimum that the financial misconduct met the legal threshold for embezzlement and money laundering.
Fallout for Staff and Investors
Following Gibran’s suspension, eFishery laid off the majority of its workforce and brought in an external consulting firm to assume management responsibilities, local media reported. The company’s operational future remains uncertain.
The fraud carries significant implications for eFishery’s institutional backers. Its investor roster includes SoftBank of Japan and Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment company — names whose involvement had lent the startup considerable credibility during its fundraising years.
Key Facts
The case reinforces growing scrutiny of governance standards across Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, where rapid capital inflows during the 2021–2022 funding boom often outpaced due diligence on financial controls and management accountability.
