eFishery collapsed after an audit found its management had invented most of its revenue, and the Indonesian aquaculture company has been wound down. Founder Gibran Huzaifah was convicted of embezzlement and money laundering in April 2026. An appeal court cut his nine-year sentence to six years in July 2026.
What Was eFishery Before It Collapsed?
eFishery was an Indonesian aquaculture technology company, founded in Bandung, West Java in 2013, that sold automated feeders to fish and shrimp farmers alongside feed supply and financing services.
Gibran Huzaifah founded it with Chrisna Aditya and Muhammad Ihsan Akhirulsyah. The pitch was straightforward: a farmer fits a device to a pond, the device doses feed on a schedule, and the company sells the feed and lends against the harvest.
Investors put roughly $315 million into the company’s preferred shares across five funding rounds. A $90 million Series C in January 2022 was followed by a $200 million Series D in 2023 that valued eFishery at about $1.4 billion. Backers included SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Temasek, Peak XV Partners, Northstar Group, Aqua-Spark and Wavemaker Partners.
What Was Faked at eFishery?
Management kept two sets of financial reports from 2018 onward, showing one version to investors, auditors and banks and another internally.
A forensic review by FTI Consulting, which took over as acting management, compared the two. For the nine months from January to September 2024, eFishery had told investors it earned $752 million in revenue and $16 million in profit. The reviewed figures were $157 million in revenue and a net loss of $35.4 million.
| Figure, January to September 2024 | Reported to investors | Forensic review |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $752 million | $157 million |
| Profit or loss | $16 million profit | $35.4 million loss |
| Fish feeding devices deployed | More than 400,000 | About 24,000 |
The device count matters more than it looks. The feeders were the asset the whole business rested on, and the gap between 400,000 and roughly 24,000 means the operation investors were funding was a fraction of the size they were told.
Why Is Gibran Huzaifah’s Sentence Now Six Years, Not Nine?
The Bandung High Court reduced it on appeal about ten weeks after the original sentence was handed down.
On 29 April 2026, the Bandung District Court convicted Gibran Chuzaefah Amsi El Farizy, who is publicly known as Gibran Huzaifah, of embezzlement in office committed jointly and continuously, and of money laundering. It sentenced him to nine years in prison with a fine of one billion rupiah, or about $60,000, and 190 days in custody in lieu if the fine went unpaid. Prosecutors had asked for ten years.
The Bandung High Court issued its appeal ruling on 7 July 2026, which Indonesian outlets reported in the third week of that month. It cut the prison term to six years but raised the fine to two billion rupiah, or about $120,000, with 320 days in lieu if unpaid. The court also ordered assets seized for compensation, including his house in Bandung.
Most English-language coverage of the case was written between late April and June 2026 and still reports the nine-year figure. The six-year term is the one currently in force. Sentences that move on appeal are common in founder prosecutions, as they were in the case of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon.
Who Else Was Convicted in the eFishery Case?
Two other former eFishery executives were convicted alongside the founder, according to Indonesian court reporting.
- Angga Hadrian Raditya: former vice-president of finance and investor relations, sentenced to nine years and fined one billion rupiah.
- Andri Yadi: former vice-president of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, sentenced to seven years and fined one billion rupiah.
DealStreetAsia reported on 20 July 2026 that the appeal court reduced prison terms for former eFishery executives, but the revised terms for Raditya and Yadi were not detailed in the reporting available. Their original terms are the ones on the public record.
Co-founder Chrisna Aditya, the former chief product officer, was suspended in December 2024 and left the company. He has not been reported as convicted in this case.
How Much Money Did Investors Lose?
Investors face a near-total loss, with FTI Consulting estimating a recovery of just under ten cents for every dollar invested.
In the most optimistic scenario in FTI’s report, liquidating the Indonesian assets would return up to $42.7 million against roughly $315 million of preferred equity. The scandal is commonly described as a $300 million loss for backers, a group that includes SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Temasek, Peak XV Partners, Northstar Group and the Malaysian pension fund KWAP.
That places eFishery among the larger venture write-offs in Southeast Asia, and it lands on institutions that are not usually exposed to this kind of failure. Pension money and sovereign wealth money sat in the same capitalisation table as the venture funds. The pattern of a well-funded startup folding with little left to recover is not confined to the region, as the collapse of Parker Fintech showed.
Is eFishery Still Operating?
No. As of 22 September 2026, eFishery does not operate as a going concern and is being wound down.
FTI Consulting told Bloomberg in February 2025 that the firm was no longer commercially viable in its current form. In the same month the company cut more than 1,000 jobs, about 90 percent of its workforce. Efforts to sell parts of the technology portfolio to other agribusiness buyers were reported during 2025 but did not complete.
The group’s Indian unit entered liquidation, and its Indonesian operating entity, PT Multidaya Teknologi Nusantara, has been reported as heading the same way. The most recent verified development in the story is the appeal ruling of 7 July 2026; there has been no confirmed announcement of a revival, a sale or a relaunch since.
Key Dates in the eFishery Collapse
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2013 | eFishery founded in Bandung, West Java |
| January 2022 | $90 million Series C led by Temasek, Peak XV and SoftBank Vision Fund |
| 2023 | $200 million Series D values the company at about $1.4 billion |
| December 2024 | A whistleblower alerts a board member; Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya are suspended |
| February 2025 | More than 1,000 jobs cut; FTI Consulting says the firm is not commercially viable |
| April 2025 | Gibran Huzaifah publicly admits falsifying the company’s financial reports |
| July 2025 | Gibran Huzaifah and two other former executives are detained by Indonesian police |
| 29 April 2026 | Bandung District Court sentences him to nine years |
| 7 July 2026 | Bandung High Court reduces the sentence to six years |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Gibran Huzaifah in Prison Now?
Yes. He is serving a six-year term in Indonesia after the Bandung High Court reduced his original nine-year sentence on 7 July 2026.
How Much Did eFishery Inflate Its Revenue?
By about $595 million over nine months. The company reported $752 million in revenue for January to September 2024; a forensic review put the real figure at $157 million.
Who Exposed the eFishery Fraud?
A whistleblower who alerted a board member to accounting irregularities in December 2024. That prompted the audit and the suspension of the two co-founders.
Did SoftBank and Temasek Get Their Money Back?
No. FTI Consulting estimated a recovery of just under ten cents on the dollar, with up to $42.7 million available against roughly $315 million invested.
Was eFishery’s Feeder Technology Real?
Yes, but at a far smaller scale than claimed. Investigators put the number of deployed feeders at about 24,000, against the more than 400,000 the company reported.
