Former Chromebook Developer Admits to Frequently Meeting Education Ministers from Various Countries, Not Just Nadiem

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Former Google executive and former Head of the Chromebook Development Team, Caesar Sengupta, admitted to meeting with Education Ministers from many countries around the world, not just Nadiem Makarim.

He stated this while serving as a character witness for Nadiem in the trial of the alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops.

“Yes, when I led the Chromebook development team until 2014, I met with many Education Ministers from many countries around the world,” said Caesar, who appeared virtually at the trial in the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (20/4/2026).

These meetings with the Education Ministers took place around 2012-2014.

Then, after Nadiem was appointed as Minister of Education and Culture in 2019, Caesar was once invited to a meeting. However, this meeting only occurred in February 2020.

At that time, Caesar was invited to join the meeting by the then President of Google Asia Pacific, Scott Beaumont.

As someone previously involved in Chromebook development, Caesar answered many questions from Nadiem and his team.

“The ministry team had many questions regarding Google for Education and Chromebook. They also explained their vision for digitalisation and improving the education system in Indonesia,” Caesar explained.

Caesar emphasised that during that meeting, Nadiem did not convey or promise anything to Google. This included no promises from the Ministry of Education and Culture to purchase a large number of Chromebooks for school procurement needs.

In the indictment, Nadiem is said to have met with several Google executives. Starting from Scott Beaumont, who was then President of Google Asia Pacific, and Colin Marson, Head of Google for Education, Google Asia Pacific.

Nadiem’s meetings with these technology company executives occurred in 2020. At that time, the ICT procurement was still in the planning stage.

The prosecutors suspect that these meetings were part of a collusion between Nadiem and Google parties to get the Chromebook product approved for procurement in the ministry.

In this case, former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim, along with three other defendants, is alleged to have caused a state financial loss of Rp 2.1 trillion.