Is BharatPe firing Ashneer Grover? Who said what
It seems like BharatPe Founder and MD Ashneer Grover just can’t take a break from being the centre of controversies. Grover, currently on a voluntary leave till March-end from the company, is now back in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Reports are pouring in stating that BharatPe is likely to fire Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover over an alleged fraud case.
The alleged audio clip of Grover hurling abuses at a Kotak bank employee over Nykaa IPO only seems to be the tip of the iceberg of all the problems surrounding the embattled startup founder. It is ironic that it took this alleged audio clip for all the cracks between BharatPe and its founder to appear in public.
Here are 3 most important questions answered:
1. IS BHARATPE FIRING GROVER AND WIFE?
Ashneer Grover is currently the MD of BharatPe, while his wife Madhuri Jain Grover is the Head of Controls. Incidentally, days after Grover went on a voluntary leave of absence, his wife also went on leave, signalling bigger problems surrounding the board of directors and the founder.
Live Mint on January 30, 2022, reported that BharatPe is likely going to fire the couple.
“The board of BharatPe has decided to terminate the services of Ashneer Grover, the company’s co-founder and managing director, two people familiar with the developments said,” the report stated.
However, Hindustan Times quoted a company statement that said that BharatPe has currently not fired any of its employees and denied any such report.
2. WHY IS ASHNEER GROVER IN THE DOCK?
There are several reasons for Ashneer Grover to have landed in this soup. While the alleged Kotak audio clip spiralled into a public controversy and incidentally became one of the causes leading up to his voluntary leave of absence at BharatPe on January 19, 2022, it is by far not the only reason according to reports.
BharatPe had announced that they were conducting an independent audit of its internal process and systems days after the news of Grover going on leave came out.
“The board of BharatPe is committed to the highest standard of corporate governance at the company and is doing an independent audit of the company's internal processes and systems,” the company said in a statement.
BharatPe has appointed Alvarez and Marsal, a management consultant and risk advisory firm for the task.
Now, Live Mint reported that according to the audit report, there are two instances of financial wrongdoings involving both Mr and Ms Grover.
Allegation 1: Company money routed through allegedly fake HR consultant firms linked to each other and to Madhuri Jain Grover’s brother Shwetank Jain.
“An examination of just two of the vendors pegged the amount paid by BharatPe for undelivered services at close to Rs 4 crore,” Live Mint reported.
Allegation 2: The audit reportedly found that BharatPe may have inflated some transaction values by some merchants and that some of these vendors may even have been fake. All in all, the audit reportedly says it involves nearly Rs 50 crore being paid to 50 vendors that seemed to be ‘non-existent’.
Before this controversy, however, Grover was accused of being the cause of the toxic work culture at BharatPe. It was also claimed that due to his headstrong personality, he was made to step back from his role as the CEO and made the MD.
3. WHAT DOES ASHNEER GROVER HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENTS?
Ashneer Grover in an interview with MoneyControl went all guns blazing at the Board and investors of BharatPe, including the CEO Suhail Sameer. He called Sameer the puppet of investors and also claimed that the board and investors manipulated him to go on the voluntary leave of absence.
He’s also armed with legal advisors and law firms to protect his turf at BharatPe in case the board decides to pull his plug from the company.
Grover has appointed New Delhi-based law firm Karanjawala & Co., Ritin Rai and a Mumbai firm called Meraki Law to do his bidding. Grover has 9.5% equity share in BharatPe, in his own words, to protect.
The founder has clearly said that the company will have to pay him no less than Rs 4,000 crore for his shares, without which he won’t be leaving. And if they do decide to keep him, one of the first things he’s going to do once he returns to work is to ‘get rid of people whose only value is to create politics’.
It’s safe to say that Ashneer Grover does not only bring drama to the reality show Shark Tank India, but also to his own company. The musings at BharatPe have been no less than a primetime reality show full of tension, suspense and the use of some of the choicest words.