BharatPe settles longstanding dispute with former co-founder Ashneer Grover

Grover will neither be associated with BharatPe nor be a part of its shareholding

BharatPe and its former co-founder Ashneer Grover have settled their longstanding legal dispute, days after the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested Grover’s brother-in-law in a case of misappropriation of funds at the fintech firm. 

As part of the settlement, Grover will not be associated with BharatPe in any capacity, nor be a part of its shareholding, the Gurugram-based company said.

“Certain shares of Mr. Grover shall 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.

 

Subsequently, Grover will not be a part of the company’s capital table in the future.

“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,” Grover said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). 

BharatPe and Grover were embroiled in a longstanding legal dispute. In January 2023, BharatPe co-founder Koladiya alleged that he transferred 1,611 shares of BharatPe amounting to ~88 lakh to Grover, but never got paid for them. 

The matter went to court. Following a criminal complaint by BharatPe regarding the misappropriation of funds in 2022, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain, and other family members in 2023.

The fraud amounting to ~81 crore alleged misappropriation of funds through illegitimate payments to fake human-resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors, bogus transactions in input-tax credit and payment of penalty to Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities, illegal payments to travel agencies, among others.

On September 20, EOW of the Delhi Police arrested Deepak Gupta, a family member of Grover, over allegations of embezzling funds from the fintech company.