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Documents filed in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court in the US on Saturday, November 15, revealed that almost USD 500 million of the Alpha Funds were allegedly round-tripped back to Byju Raveendran, co-founder of Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, and associates, including Rupin Banker. The revelation came as part of a proposed settlement between Byju’s Alpha and OCI, the London-based firm Banker had worked with during the alleged siphoning of funds.
The settlement between the two comes after Byju’s Alpha Inc. had first filed a case against OCI Limited and Rupin Banker on May 5, 2025. Alpha is a special-purpose financial vehicle that took out a USD 1.2 billion term loan in November 2021 from a US-based consortium of 37 lenders, represented by GLAS Trust Company LLC.
After Alpha Inc. defaulted on a USD 1.2 billion loan, an American court appointed a trustee who took over the company's management from Riju Raveendran. Riju is the brother of Byju Raveendran, the founder of the edtech company Byju’s (Think and Learn Pvt Ltd).
A declaration by Oliver Chapman, CEO of OCI Group, on November 15, forms part of the settlement between Alpha and OCI. “The truth about what happened to the vast majority of the Alpha Funds is that they were, in effect, round-tripped right back to Byju Raveendran and his affiliates,” Chapman has claimed.
The court document contradicts sworn statements previously made by Byju Raveendran. For months, he had told lenders, shareholders, and the press that the Alpha Funds remained in their possession.
In a sworn declaration filed in 2024, Raveendran claimed the money had been sent to OCI for “legitimate commercial purposes,” such as procuring “services to T&L and its subsidiaries in relation to the procurement of IT equipment, such as electronic tablets, and advertising.” Raveendran had proclaimed his innocence, mentioning that he hoped his statement would “dispel any notion that I or any of the founding members of BYJU’S siphoned these funds for personal gain.”
However, Chapman’s version of events and a detailed description of how USD 505 million of the Alpha Funds was used indicate otherwise. OCI, the intermediary that moved the funds, has now agreed to come forward as part of the settlement, contradicting Raveendran.
According to Chapman, the OCI transactions were “entirely directed and arranged” by Rupin Banker, who remained in “regular direct contact” with Raveendran. He added that any movement of the Alpha Funds was “at Byju Raveendran’s direction.” Chapman detailed that OCI received just over $505 million in three transactions between May 10, 2022 and July 15, 2022, from Camshaft Capital Fund, which in turn received them from Alpha.
Of this, Chapman claimed just over USD 13 million was transferred for procurement purposes. However, the “lion’s share”, totalling over USD 479 million, was moved to Revere Master SPV LLC in four transactions. “...related documents in OCI’s possession have been reviewed that demonstrate the intention of those controlling these funds was that almost all were to be transferred from that recipient to a Singapore corporation, Byju’s Global Pte Ltd,” Chapman alleged.
“The USD 13,100,220.80 remaining was transferred at the direction of Rupin Banker to him, for his benefit, or at his direction for the benefit of third parties,” Chapman claimed. He stressed that OCI “did not use the vast majority of the Alpha Funds.”
Raveendran, however, has disputed the court filing. A press statement released by his PR firm states that the “submission to the Delaware Court does not address the fact that GLAS Trust has been aware that the monies from the Alpha loans were not used by Byju Raveendran or any Founder of BYJU’s for their personal gain but were used for the benefit of Think & Learn Private Limited (TLPL).”
The statement referenced pending legal actions and laid blame at the resolution professional of Think & Learn Private Limited. “Applications are pending before the Courts in India to require such disclosure and accountability by GLAS Trust and the Resolution Professional of TLPL. Claims are being prepared against Glas Trust and others in other jurisdictions.”
Alpha had alleged that OCI and Banker “actively planned, facilitated, and effectuated the scheme” that led to the disappearance of about USD 533 million. Alpha, which is currently under court-appointed trusteeship, argued in its initial filing that if OCI truly needed the funds for procurement, it could have wired the money directly. It had suggested the involvement of the alleged sham hedge fund, Camshaft Capital, was a deliberate detour.
The initial transactions saw the money transferred first to Camshaft Capital and then to OCI Limited, a London-based company that managed some of Byju’s financial solutions, including advertising expenses for the FIFA World Cup. Rupin Banker was the structuring division head for OCI in India and Southeast Asia and played a key role in facilitating the movement of funds from Camshaft to OCI.
The authors of this piece had detailed Banker’s past in a previous article, which elaborated on a string of criminal cases against him. Furthermore, Alpha had previously argued that OCI, like Camshaft, seemed like a sham operation, citing investigators who found no OCI presence at six of its purported offices outside of London.
The article itself is subject to an ongoing defamation case in Mumbai. At 5.46 pm on February 15, MZM Legal, the law firm representing Rupin Hemant Banker, sent emails to the authors of the article and our reporting partner, The Captable, notifying them of an impending defamation case listed on February 17, at 10.30 am.
The notice received said the aggrieved “distinguished global financier” was looking to request the Civil City Court in Mumbai to take down the article and requested Rs 5 crore in damages. The alleged middleman in the headline was Banker. The article was published on February 5.
At 10.31 am on February 17, lawyers representing the journalists and The Captable emailed MZM Legal, asking which court would be hearing the matter. The email remained unanswered. The standard practice in court is that a new case is mentioned in Court No 1 of any court, which assigns a court to hear the matter. In this case, MZM Legal had curiously mentioned in its first email that the matter would be mentioned before Court No 3.
The next day, at 12.08 pm, MZM Legal informed the journalists and their law firm that an ex-parte order had been issued in the case, given that the other side was not present in court. The order was supposedly passed at 1.30 pm in a hearing on February 17. It asked for the article to be taken down.
Curiously, just three hours after the matter first reached the court, the order mentioned that “prima facie, it appears that use of derogatory language and allegations were made in the said article”, which would cause “serious harm” to Banker’s “reputation and goodwill globally”.
At 5.04 pm the same day, lawyers for the journalists wrote back to their peers at MZM Legal. It put on record that no “notice of hearing” was given to the law firm or the journalists, whose emails they had corresponded with earlier. When lawyers for the journalists reached court on February 20, owing to the previous day being a state holiday, they were in for a surprise. The judge who passed the order was on leave. The matter continues to be heard.