Founder of Indonesian ride-hailing app Gojek stands trial over procurement of school laptops

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court on Monday opened the trial of a co-founder of the country's ride-hailing and payments company Gojek, who is accused of corruption in a government project to procure Google Chromebook laptops for schools.

Nadiem Anwar Makarim, 41, was a former education, culture, research and technology minister when he was arrested Sept. 7. His arrest came during an investigation by the attorney general’s office in Jakarta into an alleged $125 billion corruption scandal linked to the project.

The laptop procurement initiated under the government’s “digitalization of schools” policy aimed to equip schools in remote areas with digital devices and infrastructure.

Makarim, who was education minister between 2019 and 2024, allegedly favored Google's Chromebook despite a ministry research team refusing to recommend the laptop model due to ineffectiveness in regions lacking internet access.

The indictment claims Makarim steered the nationwide procurement in 2020–2021 “entirely for personal business interests." Prosecutors said he pressed Google to invest in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, known as PT AKAB. The company is the parent of Gojek.

Makarim received about 809 billion rupiah ($48.2 million) in connection with the program, prosecutors claimed.

He faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment for causing state losses and misusing public funds under Indonesia’s 2001 Corruption Law.

“The procurement ignored proper pricing benchmarks and technical needs, especially for remote or under-resourced regions,” lead prosecutor Muhammad Fadli Paramajeng told a panel of three judges at Jakarta’s Corruption Court on Monday.

The purchase of more than 1.2 million Chromebooks was designed to strengthen Google’s dominance in Indonesia’s education tech ecosystem and linked to subsequent Google investments of about $787 million in PT AKAB through Google Asia Pacific, he said.

Makarim, a Harvard University graduate, was a tech CEO who co-founded Gojek in 2009 and remained until 2019, when the company was valued at over $10 billion. He stepped down to join the cabinet of former Indonesia President Joko Widodo.

Prosecutors allege his resignation from PT AKAB and Gojek was a “strategic concealment” to mask conflicts of interest while Makarim appointed close associates as directors and “beneficial owners,” allowing him to maintain indirect control over company decisions.

Makarim has denied the allegations, saying he did not personally receive funds from the Chromebook procurement or related services.

Makarim's defense attorneys argue Google’s investment largely predated his ministerial tenure and was routine corporate activity that was not tied to the laptop deal.

Makarim divested from PT AKAB upon taking office, his wealth fell by more than 50% during his term and procurement decisions were made by technical teams and officials, not the minister, they said.

“The defendant was not involved in the procurement process, as his role was limited solely to formulating policy,” defense lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir told the court. He called the indictment “unclear, inaccurate and incomplete,” saying it conflated Makarim's ministerial authority with the work of other government officials.

Two former education ministry officials and a former tech consultant also were charged in the case, while another staff member is wanted by authorities but remains at large.

Ride hailing drivers hold posters supporting Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the co-founder of Indonesia's payments platform and ride hailing company Gojek and former education minister, as they shout slogans outside the Corruption Court where Makarim's trial hearing is held in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Nadiem Anwar Makarim, center, the co-founder of Indonesia's payments platform and ride hailing company Gojek and former education minister, enters the courtroom for his first trial hearing at the Corruption Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Nadiem Anwar Makarim, center, the co-founder of Indonesia's payments platform and ride hailing company Gojek and former education minister, reacts as he enters the courtroom for his first trial hearing at the Corruption Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the co-founder of Indonesia's payments platform and ride hailing company Gojek and former education minister, reacts as he sits on the defendant's chair before the start of his first trial hearing at the Corruption Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the co-founder of Indonesia's payments platform and ride hailing company Gojek and former education minister, reacts as he enters the courtroom for his first trial hearing at the Corruption Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

CAIRO (AP) — A council fighting against Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Wednesday it had expelled the leader of a separatist movement and charged him with treason after he reportedly declined to travel to Saudi Arabia for talks.

The statement carried by SABA news agency controlled by anti-Houthi forces is the latest escalation between Saudi-backed forces and the Southern Transitional Council, which had been backed by the United Arab Emirates. It also further complicates the future of Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country riven by one of the Mideast's worst conflicts for over a decade.

The whereabouts of STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi were not immediately known.

The statement from SABA accused al-Zubaidi of “damaging the republic’s military, political and economic standing,” as well as “forming an armed gang and committing the murder of officers and soldiers of the armed forces.”

The STC has not commented on the decision of the anti-Houthi leadership group, known as the Presidential Leadership Council. That council formed in April 2022 after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen's internationally recognized government stepped down.

But its members all had competing interests and backers, with their forces never taking the fight to the Houthis even after both the United States and Israel launched massive bombing campaigns targeting the rebels. An uneasy ceasefire between the combatants on the ground in Yemen has held for years.

In late December, tensions began over the STC's advances in the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra, which were once held by Saudi-backed forces.

An earlier statement Wednesday from Maj. Gen, Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said al-Zubaidi, had been due to take a flight to Saudi Arabia but did not take the flight with other council officials.

“The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force —including armored vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition,” al-Malki said. Al-Zubaidi “fled to an unknown location.”

Saudi Arabia in recent weeks has bombed STC positions and struck what is said was a shipment of Emirati weapons. After Saudi pressure and an ultimatum from anti-Houthi forces to withdraw from Yemen, the UAE said Saturday it had withdrawn its forces.

The tensions in Yemen have further strained ties between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula that have competed over economic issues and regional politics.

Ostensibly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have shared the coalition’s professed goal of fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014.

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The war there has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, disrupting regional shipping. The U.S., which earlier praised Saudi-Emirati efforts to end the crisis over the separatists, has launched airstrikes against the rebels under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

FILE - The president of the Yemen's Southern Transitional Council Aidarous Al-Zubaidi sits for an interview, Sept. 22, 2023, in New York, while attending the United Nations General Assembly's annual high-level meeting of world leaders. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)