Sordid saga: BharatPe sacks Madhuri Jain for swindling funds; Ashneer Grover slams Rajnish Kumar

By Salman SH

The already sordid BharatPe saga took a turn for the worse on Wednesday, as the company’s board sacked Madhuri Jain, controller, for allegedly swindling company funds for personal use. Jain was quick to retaliate by charging co-founder Bhavik Koladia and chief executive officer Suhail Sameer with misbehaviour and “treating women like objects” in a series of tweets.

Her husband, and BhartatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover, meanwhile, accused Rajnish Kumar, chairman of BharatPe, of bias – a charge the latter dismissed. Grover also accused Koladia of being abusive on a telephone call and said the latter had asked to meet him at a certain location. He claimed that Kumar was also with Koladia when he received the call.

In the letter, Grover stated that the involvement of Kumar in the ‘episode’ has confirmed his apprehensions that “the entire façade of the alleged governance review is riddled with premeditation, bias and prejudice”.

Later, Jain tweeted what she said was an audio recording of the conversation between the two. “What was he doing at Rajnish’s house? What strategy/ conspiracy were they discussing? Why did he threaten Ashneer on being asked agenda and abuse?”

In her tweets, Jain also charged Sameer and Koladiya with indulging in “drunken orgies”.

In his response, Kumar said Grover should have shown more maturity and alleged the latter’s strategy is to make a case that the governance review is biased against him. “I agree that Ashneer should have shown maturity…The whole strategy of Ashneer is to make out a case that the governance review is biased against him. He is creating documentation for that, nothing else,” Kumar told Moneycontrol.

A spokesperson for BharatPe confirmed that Jain was terminated from the company on Wednesday. She is alleged to have used company funds for personal beauty treatments, buying electronic items and family trips to the US and Dubai, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

“As per your query, we can confirm that the services of Madhuri Jain Grover have been terminated in accordance with the terms of her employment agreement,” the spokesperson said.

Sources close to the company said Madhuri’s entire ESOP holding has been held back by the board. She did not own any other class of equity shares.

The sacking comes just a few weeks after an initial investigation completed by Alvarez and Marsal and PwC, which indicted Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain of committing financial fraud.

The BharatPe board had appointed Alvarez and PwC in late January to conduct a management review and inspect the company books to examine allegations of governance lapses under Grover. A preliminary report prepared after the review said that there were two instances of financial transactions made using invoices that were made to “non-existent vendors”.

The report by Alvarez and PwC, published on January 24, stated that BharatPe usually pays “recruitment fees” to consultants for employees hired through them. However, there were irregularities in three recruits made by BharatPe where invoices were made to “non-existent” consultants. Though the three employees confirmed their date of joining, they denied going through a consultant route for hiring. Hence, the three invoices made at that time seemed fraudulent in nature since they didn’t name any vendors as well, the review committee report added. It also mentioned that Jain, who was the controls head at the time, had allegedly pocketed the three receipts herself. The invoices were allegedly created by Shwetank Jain, Jain’s brother, the report added.

from Banking & Finance – The Financial Express https://ift.tt/SAqc4Z5