Allegations of Board suspending Bose for silencing harassment complaints false: Zilingo

Ankiti Bose (Image: @ankitibose/Instagram)

Singapore-based fashion e-commerce company Zilingo Pte said it is disappointed with media reports alleging that its Board suspended its embattled Co-founder and CEO Ankiti Bose for silencing certain harassment complaints she had made against Zilingo’s senior management team.

“We are disappointed by recent leaks of untrue information to the media in attempts to discredit the investigation, the Board, individual investors, and/or employees, even before the investigation has been completed. Despite these attempts, the Board remains committed to following due process and concluding the investigation expediently,” Ziligo said in a statement on May 2.

“For the avoidance of doubt, no guilt on anyone’s part has yet been determined, as the investigations are still ongoing,” the company added.

Zilingo’s statement comes a couple of weeks after multiple media reports said that Zilingo had suspended Bose for accounting-related issues. Bose, meanwhile, was contending that her suspension was due in part to her complaints about harassment, Bloomberg News had reported. A report in news website Yourstory, too, said that Bose’s suspension was a case of retribution for filing complaints against the senior team and management on several harassment-related issues.

However, Zilingo said Bose talked about certain sexual harassment-related allegations only after she was suspended on March 31.

“We wish to reiterate that following her suspension on March 31, Ankiti Bose brought to the Board's attention, for the first time, certain harassment-related allegations. To clarify, no past or present investor nominees on the Board were made aware of the harassment claims, until after she was suspended. Furthermore, these complaints do not allege harassment by any investors or past/ current Board members,” the company said.

Zilingo said it received certain complaints of ‘serious nature’ and the decision was taken jointly by the Board and the relevant shareholders and it does not reflect the decision of a single shareholder, further refuting claims of a big investor in the company being behind the decision to suspend Bose.

Zilingo’s Board suspended Bose and had begun an investigation into its financial practices. The company was trying to raise $150 million-$200 million when investors first questioned its finances as part of the due diligence process. Just two days after, Shailendra Singh of Sequoia Capital India, which has invested in the e-commerce company, resigned from Zilingo’s Board.