Indonesia jails former education minister for 10 years in Google Chromebook graft case

Indonesian investigators on Thursday named a former education minister and co-founder of Gojek, Nadiem Makarim, a suspect in a corruption case. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images An Indonesian corruption court on Tuesday sentenced former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim, a co-founder of ride- hailing and payments giant Gojek, to 10 years in prison for corruption. Makarim was found guilty in a case linked to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools under the country's education digitalization program that ran from 2019 to 2022. An education minister from 2019 to 2024, Makarim was also fined 1 billion Indonesian rupiah ($55,870) and ordered to pay 809.6 billion rupiah in restitution. He faces an additional five-year prison term if he fails to repay the amount. Prosecutors had demanded an 18-year prison sentence for Makarim, a 1 billion rupiah fine, and restitution of 5.6 trillion rupiah. Indonesia's Attorney General named Makarim a suspect in September 2025 , alleging that he and other officials steered technical specifications toward Google products under the education digitalization program. In February 2020 , Makarim met with representatives from Google Indonesia to discuss Google products, including Chromebooks that could be used by the ministry and students. …