The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP) was deceived over its investment in Indonesian aquaculture start-up eFishery, describing the incident as a well-planned fraud, with recovery efforts now underway.
MOF said the consortium of investors, including KWAP, has taken legal action, initiated fund recovery measures and conducted internal governance reviews after eFishery’s management was found to have manipulated financial statements.
“Following the discovery, the consortium of investors, including KWAP, has taken firm measures, including legal action, fund recovery efforts, internal governance reviews and strengthened controls,” MOF said in a written reply published on Parliament’s website.
The consortium has also lodged reports with relevant authorities and continues efforts to recover the investment funds, while KWAP has reviewed its investment evaluation, approval and monitoring processes.
MOF said the investment decision was made based on due diligence procedures and available information at the time, including audited financial statements verified by internationally accredited auditors. Independent reviews covering financial, legal and operational aspects were also conducted before approval.
The investment involved several global institutional investors and technology funds including Temasek, SoftBank, 42XFund and Northstar.
KWAP invested US$47.7 million (RM200 million) in eFishery during its Series D funding round in 2023, which raised US$200 million and helped the company achieve unicorn status with a valuation of US$1.4 billion.
The start-up later faced scrutiny after its chief executive officer Gibran Huzaifah and chief product officer Chrisna Aditya were suspended over alleged financial irregularities. A preliminary investigation reportedly found eFishery may have inflated revenue by almost US$600 million in the nine months to September last year and recorded a US$35.4 million loss instead of the reported US$16 million profit.
