BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and CapitalMind founder and CEO Deepak Shenoy on Wednesday traded blows after reports emerged of the Grover family allegedly siphoning off funds from the fintech unicorn on the pretext of offering recruitment services.
According to a preliminary report of an investigation by the Economic Offences Wing, Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover gave bank account numbers that were created after the invoices were raised.
Reacting to the development, Deepak Shenoy wrote on X, "Ashneer Grover apparently siphoned out funds to his family in the name of recruitment services - a well-known mechanism to take money out. So stupidly done too - they backdated invoices with bank accounts that didn't even exist at that date!"
He added that as per news reports, more than Rs 53 crore was paid to such "sham" companies, owned or connected to the Grovers. "These companies didn't even file GST (though they charged it!) which is what brought the whole house down. I wonder if investors in startups have at least a policy saying we'll do an annual independent review of recruitment-related payments and links to founders... this kind of 'taking it out' is fairly common," the CapitalMind boss wrote.
Hitting out at him, Ashneer Grover re-shared a tweet in which he claimed that at the end of the BharatPe row, he would be the "last man standing".
Deepak Shenoy then reminded the former Shark Tank India judge of Enron -- a US-based energy company that imploded as a result of multiple fraudulent accounting practices. The then CEO Jeffrey Skilling was in 2006 convicted of felony charges relating to Enron's collapse and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
"Even Skilling of Enron calling someone an 'a**hole' before he went to jail. Please enjoy your time while the story comes out. There's always the UK to welcome you of course," Shenoy told Grover.
The former "Shark" did not back down.
"Maine to tujhe judge bola - tune judge ko a**hole bola. Self-realisation achhi hai vaise teri," Ashneer Grover said. It roughly translates to: "I called you a judge and you called the judge an a**hole. Your self-realisation game is good."
Hitting back, Shenoy commented, "Vaise yahan bhi accha imagination use kar rahe ho, ab samajh aaya (You aren't bad at using your imagination here as well, now I understand) how you knew the bank account numbers of companies that didn't even exist when an invoice was made by them. Well, enjoy. Time is of the essence, but India gives a lot of time."
The duel between the two entrepreneurs drew a number of reactions from fellow X users.
"Deepak, what a dignified reply which he never deserves but please don't fall down to his level. I am sure you had a much better upbringing," said one user while another commented, "He is right that he will be the last man standing knowing how our judiciary works!"
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