Three former senior executives of Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery, including Gibran Huzaifah, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, have been detained by the local law enforcement agency, DealStreetAsia has learnt.
The others who have been taken into custody include Angga Hadrian Raditya, the former vice president of corporate finance and investor relations; and Andri Yadi, who previously served as vice president of artificial intelligence of Internet of Things (AIoT) and culti-financing.
The arrests, carried out by the West Java Regional Police (Polda Jawa Barat) late last week, mark the sharpest escalation yet in the legal fallout engulfing one of Southeast Asia’s most celebrated agritech startups.
eFishery’s major shareholders have been informed by the firm’s Indonesian counsel that the three individuals have been under official detention since late last week, a source aware of the developments told this portal.
DealStreetAsia has reached out to FTI Consulting, which now acts as eFishery’s management; and the West Java Regional Police (Polda Jawa Barat) for comment.
The three names were previously identified in an internal investigation conducted by FTI Consulting, a development first reported by DealStreetAsia in January this year.
According to the document, FTI listed at least 22 employees who reported directly to Gibran during his tenure as CEO. The chart classifies individuals based on the extent of their knowledge or involvement in the alleged fraud.
According to the document, Angga Raditya—who is now in detention—was identified under “Category 1,” described as individuals with knowledge who either actively falsified financial records, facilitated suspicious bank transfers to five bogus entities, or helped conceal the scheme by deleting or manipulating data.
Several other executives, including Tubagus Tommy Apriadi (former head of financial controllers) and Chrisna Aditya (former chief product officer and co-founder), were listed under “Category 2”—defined as people who had knowledge of inflated figures or external book discrepancies but failed to report them to the board.
Separately, DealStreetAsia reported on an earlier criminal case involving eFishery that was investigated last year. In that matter, five individuals, including two ex-employees and three external clients, were named as suspects in connection with alleged fraudulent transactions amounting to 39 billion rupiah, according to the investigators.
That case now moves to the prosecution stage, said officers involved in the investigation that was concluded last year.
The probe began in October 2023 after eFishery’s management filed a complaint over the alleged bogus transactions with police in Bandung, West Java, where the company is headquartered. Following their investigation, the officers handed over the suspects, evidence, and case files to the Bandung Prosecutor’s Office early last year.
Although Indonesian law requires the Prosecutor’s Office to bring the case to court within 15 days, that has yet to happen—a delay that is not unusual in the country’s legal system.
The five accused in the case are: Rovi Faturachman and Ricianto, both former B2B managers at eFishery; Ahmad Nurhadiansyah, the CEO of PT Jaya Sarana Energi; M. Faizal Zulkarnain, CEO of PT Sakana Umi Nusantara Bahari; and Marsudi Budi Wiyatno, Director of CV Dwi Lestari.
The five suspects have been charged under Article 378 of the Indonesian Criminal Code, which relates to fraudulent conduct and carries a maximum penalty of four years’ imprisonment.
