Indonesian prosecutors have sought a 10-year prison sentence for defendants in a case linked to aquaculture startup eFishery, as court proceedings outlined alleged financial losses affecting tens of thousands of parties.
Reading out the charges at the Bandung District Court Class 1A Special on Wednesday, prosecutors said defendants—Gibran Huzaifah, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, and Angga Hadrian Raditya, former vice president of corporate finance and investor relations—were each handed 10-year prison sentences.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have sought a sentence of eight years for Andri Yadi, who previously served as vice president of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (AIoT) and culti-financing.
The three defendants were also ordered to pay a fine of 1 billion rupiah ($58,343) each, with a subsidiary penalty allowing authorities to seize assets if the fine is not paid. If the confiscated assets are insufficient, the fine may be substituted with an additional custodial sentence of up to 190 days.
The prosecution said the defendants’ actions had caused financial losses of approximately 69.47 billion rupiah ($4.05 million) to PT Multidaya Teknologi Nusantara, identified as the victim in the case, while also eroding investor confidence in the company.
Prosecutors also cited aggravating factors, stating that the defendants had shown no remorse and had provided inconsistent statements during the trial.
“For that, we request that the defendant be sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment,” the prosecutor said during the hearing.
During the proceedings, the presiding judge reread the indictment, outlining the financial scope of the case and the number of affected parties. The court cited more than 26,000 victims linked to aquaculture operations and related contractual arrangements.
Detailing the figures, the judge referred to multiple transactions and obligations, with amounts ranging from around Rp445,000 to Rp486,000, alongside smaller recurring sums.
“These are part of the factual record of the case,” the judge said, referring to documentation compiled in 2023.
The judges said the defendants have the right to file an objection or appeal against the ruling within a week of the hearing, in line with Indonesian legal procedures.
Separately, the court is scheduled to hear the defendants’ pleas on April 22, followed by replies and counter-replies later in the week, with a verdict expected before the end of April. All defendants were first detained in early August last year, DealStreetAsia first reported.
The hearing forms part of ongoing legal proceedings that have drawn attention to governance and financial practices within Indonesia’s fast-growing aquaculture startup sector, where eFishery has been one of the most prominent players.
eFishery, which has been in the headlines for allegations of financial irregularities at the firm, has caused serious reputational damage to the broader startup community. In December 2024, the board of eFishery had suspended its co-founders, Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya, following an investigation into alleged financial irregularities.
Financial irregularities at eFishery date back to around 2018, when the company allegedly began maintaining two sets of financial records—one reflecting actual performance and another with inflated figures shown to investors.
Revenue and profits were reportedly overstated through fabricated transactions, intermediary entities, and adjusted accounting entries, allowing the company to project stronger growth during fundraising. The discrepancies were said to be sustained by senior executives using supporting documents to justify the inflated numbers, despite weaker underlying fundamentals.
Aqua-Spark founders break the silence
Early this month, the founders of Dutch aquaculture investment firm Aqua-Spark, which was the largest shareholder in eFishery, publicly addressed the case for the first time, condemning misconduct at the Indonesian startup while warning of broader repercussions for the sector.
Aqua-Spark anchored eFishery’s pre-Series A round in 2015. It invested $550,000 in the Indonesian startup for a stake that was valued at $284 million in 2023. Per DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE data, Aqua-Spark holds the largest stake at the firm with a 19.83% stake, followed by Gibran Huzaifah (9.02%), Chrisna Aditya, former CPO and co-founder (8.74%), 42XFund (7.39%), and Northstar Group (now Ares Management) at 6.37%. eFishery has raised $314.73 million since its founding in 2013.
In a statement published on LinkedIn by co-founders Amy Novogratz and Mike Velings, the firm said eFishery’s leadership had deliberately misrepresented performance data to attract funding.
“What the CEO of eFishery and the people around him did was wrong,” the statement said, adding that the company had “systematically inflated performance data” to sustain a misleading picture of its business.
The investors said they had refrained from speaking publicly earlier as investigations were ongoing, and instead focused on supporting stakeholders and their broader portfolio.
Despite the fraud, Aqua-Spark emphasised that eFishery had underlying fundamentals, describing it as a “real company with real technology” that addressed critical challenges in aquaculture, including improving market access and financing for smallholder farmers.
The firm said the collapse represented not only financial losses but also a missed opportunity for the sector, noting that the startup could have evolved into a sustainable and impactful business.
The fallout has also affected investor sentiment. Aqua-Spark said the case disrupted capital flows into aquaculture, particularly from mainstream institutional investors that had only recently begun entering the space. “Rebuilding confidence… is hard, slow work,” the founders said, warning that trust lost in the episode would take time to recover.
The firm acknowledged the financial impact on its own investors, adding that the episode prompted a reassessment of its investment processes, making it more disciplined and rigorous.
At the same time, Aqua-Spark urged stakeholders not to view the incident as representative of the broader industry. “Do not let one company’s failure define this industry,” the founders said, pointing to continued innovation and resilience among other aquaculture startups.
