BharatPe Sacks Ashneer Grover’s Wife Madhuri Jain on Funds Misuse Charge

Fintech startup BharatPe’s head of control Madhuri Jain Grover, wife of the founder Ashneer Grover has been sacked by the company over alleged financial irregularities and misuse of funds. Her stock options have also been canceled.

As per accusations, Jain was accused of sharing confidential financial information with the company’s outsiders, including her brother Shwetank Jain and brother-in-law Deepak Jagdishram Gupta. This was done in order to create fake invoices and bills to present. Ashneer Grover recently appeared as an investor on a business reality TV series named Shark Tank India. Grover continued to catch the attention of people with his remarks that would go viral on social media.

When and how did it begin?

The whole controversy began on January 5 this year when an audio clip was leaked online that allegedly featured Grover and an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank in which he could be heard abusing the employee and showing disappointment over missing out on Nykaa shares. The BharatPe founder next day posted a tweet and claimed that the shared clip was fake. Later on, the clip was taken down from the platforms like Twitter and SoundCloud and Grover deleted the tweet too, as the original tweet containing the clip no longer existed.

On January 9, Grover and his wife Madhuri sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank that sought damages over missing out on the Nykaa IPO. In turn, the bank also decided to take legal action over the circulated audio clip. Then on January 17, an email conversation between Grover and a Sequoia employee Harshjit Sethi that was dated back in August 2020 surfaced online. The conversation again made it to headlines for raising questions on the behavior of Grover as he used expletives throughout.

Following the series of controversies, the BharatPe founder took a voluntary leave from January 19 till March-end. Meanwhile, on January 29, the company decided to go for an independent audit.

BharatPe had released a statement in which it said, 

“The Board of BharatPe is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance at the company and is doing an independent audit of the company’s internal processes and systems.”

The statement further added, 

“BharatPe, through its legal firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has appointed Alvarez and Marsal, a leading management consultant and risk advisory firm to advise the Board on its recommendations.”

The initial reports of the investigation that came out on February 2, accused Grover’s wife of committing financial fraud. Meanwhile, a letter by Grover also surfaced seeking the removal of BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer from the company board that was dated on February 2. Further, Madhuri Jain Grover sought information regarding the name in the initial report.

During this while on February 22, Ashneer Grover wrote a letter to the company board seeking protection from future actions. In the letter, he also targeted BharatPe’s board chairman Rajnish Kumar.

What is BharatPe?

Founded in March 2018, BharatPe is an indigenous fintech company catering to small merchants and shop owners. It facilitates them with a range of fintech products that include QR codes for UPI payments, Bharat Swipe (POS machine) for card acceptance, and small business financing.