BharatPe & Ashneer Grover Settle Dispute, Co-Founder Exits

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) Fintech firm BharatPe has reached a settlement with its former co-founder Ashneer Grover, ending months of acrimonious legal and public dispute, the two sides said on Monday.

As part of the settlement agreement, Grover will not be associated with BharatPe in any capacity nor be a part of the shareholding of the company.

Grover will transfer a part of his shareholding to the BharatPe board and the rest will be managed by a family trust, keeping him off the company's capital table. Also, the two sides will not pursue legal cases, BharatPe and Grover said in separate statements.

The settlement comes days after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police arrested Deepak Gupta on charges of misappropriation of fintech Unicron's funds. Gupta is the husband of Madhuri Jain Grover's sister.

"Certain number of shares held by him will be transferred to the Resilient Growth Trust for the benefit of the company and his remaining shares will be managed by his family trust.

"Both parties have decided not to pursue the cases filed," BharatPe said in a statement.

It all started in January 2022 when Grover had to go on leave following allegations of using abusive language against Kotak Mahindra Bank staff and fraudulent practices, which he denied.

BharatPe had roped in SAM, Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) and PwC for governance review in February 2022 after sending Grover on leave.

In a report by A&M, it was alleged that Madhuri Jain Grover and her family members, brother Shwetank Jain and brother-in-law Deepak Jagdishram Gupta were involved in financial irregularities at the company.

BharatPe sacked its head of controls and Grover's wife Madhuri Jain Grover on February 23, 2022, for alleged financial irregularities ranging from producing fake invoices to billing the company for personal beauty treatment and trips abroad.

These followed allegations of illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants linked to Madhuri Jain's brother Shwetank Jain. Also, there were allegations of inflated transactions, undue payments through pass-through vendors, sham transactions in input-tax credit, illegal payments to travel agencies, forged invoices etc.

Grover quit as managing director of the firm on March 1, 2022, after an emergency arbitrator in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) held that there was no ground to stop governance review at the fintech firm. His resignation did not stop BharatPe from sacking him from all positions as well as stripping him of the co-founder tag.

That followed months of bickering by both sides.

Grover in a post on X said, "I have reached a decisive settlement with BharatPe. I repose my faith in the management and board, who are doing great work in taking BharatPe forward in the right direction. I continue to remain aligned with the company's growth and success. I will no longer be associated with BharatPe in any capacity, nor be part of the capital table."

Grover, who had previously accused the BharatPe board of mismanagement, ended the post with "Peace!".

BharatPe had filed a criminal complaint in December 2022 against Grover, his wife Madhuri, her brother Shwetank, Suresh Jain (father-in-law of Ashneer) and Deepak Gupta.

EoW filed an FIR against them in May 2023 in the alleged Rs 81 crore fraud case.

Last month, EOW made its first arrest in the case when it arrested Amit Kumar Bansal on the allegation of being one of the members of non-existing firms that had received payments of Rs 72 crore from the then directors of BharatPe between 2019 and 2021. Gupta was arrested earlier this month.