THE Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) has confirmed it invested RM163.4mil in scandal-hit Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery, whose co-founder and former CEO Gibran Huzaifah was sentenced to nine years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering.
KWAP said the case involved deliberate financial manipulation and misrepresentation of company accounts, according to news portal Malay Mail.
KWAP disclosed that its total investment in eFishery amounted to RM163.4mil, representing about 2.51% of the company’s shareholding.
It stressed that the majority of eFishery’s shares were held by other investors, including major global institutional investors that were similarly affected by the misconduct.
The fund has launched internal investigations, reviewed its investment processes, and is pursuing all possible avenues to recover the money.
KWAP reassured contributors that the loss is small compared to its overall portfolio, which recorded RM8.33bil gross investment income and RM195.26bil in assets in 2025.
It also pledged stronger oversight, diversification, and monitoring in future private market investments.
The Indonesian startup was once regarded as one of the leading agritech companies before allegations of accounting fraud exposed its wrongdoings.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said KWAP was deceived into investing in eFishery as a result of a “premeditated fraud” by the Indonesian agritech start-up with its management’s manipulation of financial reports.
He added that other international institutional investors fell victim to the fraudulent scheme.
“The decision went through the evaluation and governance process, based on the information available at the time, which included verification of financial statements by internationally recognised certified auditors,” Anwar said in a written parliamentary reply on Wednesday (July 15).
“At the same time, the consortium of investors, including KWAP, also carried out independent due diligence to ensure that all information was complete and valid for investment consideration.”
He underlined that several leading international institutional investors and technology funds also invested in eFishery. This included Temasek, SoftBank, 42XFund and Northstar.
“Nevertheless, the eFishery investment was a premeditated fraud, and there was manipulation of financial reports by the management of eFishery,” he said. — July 18, 2026
Main photo credit: The Star
