New Delhi: BharatPe has severed ties with co-founder Ashneer Grover saying he was “no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company” — a day after he resigned as Managing Director and from the company’s board.
The fintech company hit out at Grover for “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 account and grossly abused company expense accounts in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles,” BharatPe said in a statement Wednesday.
Official Statement for the day- March 02, 2022 pic.twitter.com/EPO0DHLv5C
— BharatPe (@bharatpeindia) March 2, 2022
The Board noted it will not allow the Grover family’s “deplorable conduct” to tarnish BharatPe’s reputation.
“The company reserves all rights to take further legal action against him and his family,” it said.
The New Delhi-based fintech firm also accused Grover of resigning from the company “minutes after” he received notice that some of the results of the inquiry would be presented to the Board.
“He quickly shirked responsibility by sending an email to the Board submitting his resignation and fabricating another false narrative of the events to the public,” the statement added.
The statement by BharatPe comes following a board meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the findings of a “governance review” of its practices.
Grover, in his resignation letter, Monday wrote, “Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, I’ve been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by a few individuals who are ready not only to harm me and my reputation but also harm the reputation of the company, which ostensibly they are trying to protect.”
He, however, maintained that he would continue as the single largest individual shareholder of the company.
The Shark Tank India judge, who owned a 9.5 per cent stake worth Rs 1,800-1,900 crore in BharatPe as of August 2021, took voluntary leave from the company in January after a video of him allegedly abusing a bank employee went viral.
Also read: BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover resigns, says ‘won’t participate in charade’