 "Housing Co-Founder Rahul Yadav")
The Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has lodged an FIR against Rahul Yadav and Sanjay Saini, senior officials at 4B Network Pvt Ltd, for allegedly cheating an advertising firm of more than Rs 10 crore. Yadav is the founder of the real estate portal Housing.com.
The complainant in the case is Rajasthan-based Vikas Om Prakas Noval, a Rajasthan-based director of Interspace Communication Private Limited.
4B Networks is a prop-tech company with a platform that facilitates, enables and empowers brokers and developers.
In his statement to the police, Noval alleged that Yadav's firm cheated them to the tune of more than Rs 10 crore for the work they did for the 4B Networks in 2022.
From February 2022 to September 2022, 4B Networks offered installation printing, hoardings, display and other advertising-related services, and a total of 83 advertisement hoardings were put up by Noval's company in different places in Pune city from April to August last year, as per the FIR.
Later, Noval's firm sent invoices for payments, out of which Yadav's company cleared a few but later failed to do so, the complainant alleged.
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Hence, Noval approached the police and lodged a complaint with the EOW.
Based on the complaint, the FIR was registered on Saturday against 4B Networks company's director Yadav, management founding member Saini and their firm at Amboli police station under relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 420 (cheating) and 406 (breach of trust), the official said.
No arrest has been made so far.
Who is Rahul Yadav?
Rahul Yadav is an entrepreneur known as the founder of Housing.com. He started the real estate advertising platform in 2012 after dropping out from IIT-Bombay. He was just 23 years old at the time.
Two years later, it shot to fame as one of India's startup success stories after SoftBank led an investment of $90 million or Rs 550 crore in December 2014, valuing the startup at Rs 1,500 crore.
Later, however, reports started emerging of the company not paying its employees and creditors.
Reports showed Yadav splurging money on luxuries while the employees go unpaid. He reportedly maintained a luxurious lifestyle, such as owning a Mercedes-Maybach and hiring a boardroom at the Taj Land's End for Rs 80,000 per day. His startup burnt over Rs 276 crore in less than 18 months, while over 150 employees have not been paid since November last year.
In June, Info Edge initiated a forensic audit of the company's affairs and appointed Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India as the forensic auditor.
Info Edge, in the filing, explained that its subsidiary Allcheckdeals India had invested in Yadav's 4B Networks. This included an amount of Rs 288 crore.
The company also said the action is being taken as 4B Networks have, time and again, failed to provide the information that it had asked for.
"AIPL has been, at various instances, seeking information, including details and particulars of financial transactions, transactions with related parties and such other aspects from 4B Networks and its current management, all of which are required to be provided to AIPL contractually under the shareholders' agreement and articles of association of 4B Networks. However, 4B Networks has repeatedly failed to provide AIPL with such information and has also not responded to the information requests by the Company on several occasions," Info Edge said.
(With agency inputs)
