The first invoices of five firms linked to embattled BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover’s family, which allegedly siphoned off funds from the fintech unicorn on the pretext of offering recruitment services, gave bank accounts numbers that were created after the dates when they were raised, according to a preliminary report of an investigation by the Economic Offences Wing.
For example, an invoice for Rs 39.9 lakh that was raised on 7th August 2019 had an associated bank account that was opened on 22nd August 2019, signalling that the invoices were backdated to allegedly siphon off the money from BharatPe.
“These invoices were provided by the vendors as well as complainant company to the investigating agency, which established that these fake invoices were created at a later stage after the opening of bank accounts of these firms. These firms were established and their bank accounts were opened only for the purpose of siphoning of funds and for causing wrongful gain to the alleged persons,” said the status report submitted to the Delhi High Court.
“The registered addresses of all alleged eight HR firms belongs to family members or relatives of alleged Madhuri Jain, Suresh Jain [father of Madhuri (Jain) Grover] and Shwetank Jain (brother of Madhuri Jain)... In all these eight alleged firms, around 7.60 crore was found credited, almost all the credit entries coming from complainant company RIPL,” it added.
Mint was first to report the development.
Last year, BharatPe had filed a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing on 17 counts, including embezzlement, forgery, and criminal breach of trust, which could land the Grovers in jail for up to ten years if proven guilty.
According to a suit brought by BharatPe, Grover's wife Madhuri Jain approved payments totalling Rs 7.6 crore to eight such vendors who did not assist the company in recruiting any employees.
Former BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer, for example, was shown to have been hired through a human resources (HR) vendor named Vikas Enterprises, despite being hired directly by the company.
Moreover, the company claims that Jain and her family members not only connived to carry out these fraudulent transactions on recruitment services, but that these eight vendors also had close ties to them and to each other.
Th fintech unicorn also filed a civil suit against Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain, and other family members, seeking over Rs 88 crore in damages for alleged misappropriation of funds.
Earlier, Moneycontrol accessed and reviewed a part of the 2,800-page civil suit filed by BharatPe against the Grovers, which alleges an astounding web of fake bills and misappropriation of company funds for personal use.
In addition to the accusations around dubious transactions and fake vendors, the company alleged in the lawsuit that Grover contributed nothing to the BharatPe technology or concept. It said that his association with the company began in 2018 when he made a ‘paltry’ investment of Rs 31,920, for which he received 3,192 shares.
Since the beginning of 2022, the four-year-old company has been embroiled in controversy after its founder was accused of using inappropriate language and threatening a Kotak Group employee for failing to secure an allotment and funding for the Nykaa IPO for himself and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.
While Grover took a voluntary leave and later resigned as the company's MD, his wife, former head of controls Madhuri Jain, was fired over allegations of misappropriation of funds.
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