JAKARTA: Indonesian police have detained the co-founder and former chief executive officer of eFishery, who has previously admitted faking financial information at the once high-flying aquaculture startup.
Gibran Huzaifah was detained along with two other former executives, Angga Hadrian Raditya and Andri Yadi, according to a text message from the director of special economic crimes at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency, Helfi Assegaf. DealStreetAsia earlier reported the detentions.
There was no immediate indication the three former executives have been charged with any wrongdoing or named as suspects. All three have been held since July 31, according to the police.
Gibran has told Bloomberg News he faked accounts at eFishery, which since the scandal has been administered by FTI Consulting.
By the time it collapsed, the scheme had blown up into a multinational web of fake shell companies and padded accounts. The company claimed revenues of US$752 million in the first nine months of 2024, while the true number was just $157 million, according to an internal investigation.
"You see yourself in the mirror and when you do something wrong, you know that you’re not proud of yourself,” Gibran said during a five-hour conversation on the scheme.
"I thought I would just do it to survive.”
Several high-profile firms had invested in eFishery, including Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. - Bloomberg
