CEO Explains How He Faked Results in $300 Million Meltdown

As Gibran Huzaifah stared at the Excel spreadsheet on his laptop, he was looking into the void. eFishery, the Indonesian startup he’d built from a fish-feeding prototype to a 100-employee extension of himself, was just three months away from running out of cash.

Slowly, he started plugging fake numbers into the financial report. Within an hour, he had done what five years of hard work couldn’t — turn his business into a winner, at least on paper. He hit the send button to show his investors, certain he’d get caught.

Only he didn’t. His backers were cheered that his business was improving. They chipped ...