The saga between BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and the company continued on Wednesday, March 2, with BharatPe saying in a statement that it has taken “strong objection” to Ashneer “spinning lies and hurling baseless allegations and threats''. The company said it has all rights to take further legal action against Ashneer and his family. This comes a day after Ashneer sent in his resignation letter on March 1.
BharatPe said in its statement that Ashneer quit after he received notice that some results of an inquiry carried out would be presented to the Board of Directors, and that he shirked responsibility by sending in his resignation and “fabricating another false narrative of events to the public”. The statement adds that his family has engaged in “extensive misappropriation of funds” to fund their lifestyles.
“The company has taken strong objection to Mr. Grover spinning lies and hurling baseless allegations and threats. The Grover family and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendors through which they siphoned money away from the company’s expense account and grossly abused company expense accounts in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles,” the statement read.
It added that the Board will not allow the Grover family to tarnish BharatPe’s reputation.
“As a result of his misdeeds, Mr. Grover is no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company,” it stated.
Ashneer, in his resignation letter addressed to the Board of Directors, had said that they will not find a single act of impropriety against him and that he will not participate in their charade. He also lashed out against the company in his resignation letter. In the letter, Ashneer said that he has founded and built "BharatPe into what it is today, and this identity, none of you can take away from me". "I am the rebel slave who must be hung by the tree so none of the other slaves can dare to be like me ever again. Unfortunately, I refuse to walk that path and refuse to tolerate this continuous and shameful vilification of me and my family," he wrote.
"I have been the one who founded this company and built it up to its enviable position today, no wonder you want to oust me for your vested interests. So when do we end this? We end this now," the letter stated.
His resignation came as top investors in the fintech platform declined to buy his 8.5 % stake in the company for Rs 4,000 crore as he had sought. Ashneer also lost an arbitration in Singapore he filed against the fintech platform for launching a probe against him.
BharatPe said that Ashneer resigned after receiving an upcoming Board meeting agenda, which included consideration of action against him based on the report submitted by advisory firm PwC. His wife Madhuri Jain Grover, who was former head of controls at BharatPe, had earlier been sacked over charges of financial fraud.
BharatPe said that the Board is taking all necessary steps to further strengthen the company's corporate governance, including the appointment of an audit committee, an internal auditor, and the implementation of other key internal control.