Ashneer Grover's allegations frivolous, attempts to malign us: BharatPe

A day after Ashneer Grover wrote to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das alleging that the fintech company had intentionally engaged in fraudulent activities, the company in a statement said that the allegations put up are baseless and are attempts to malign the company.  

Former BharatPe co-founder Grover, in a letter dated March 6, told the RBI that BharatPe had deliberately “defrauded” it by bringing back Bhavik Koladiya, who was convicted of a wire fraud in the US, to the company’s cap table, after securing a bunch of licences.

Grover in his letter has asked RBI to look into whether the company’s board and investors had “warehoused” Koladiya’s shares for a specific period of time only to bring him back after the requisite approvals were received from the central bank.

He questioned whether BharatPe's inclusion of Koladiya in its ownership structure during the licence application would have led regulators to approve the company's stake in Unity Small Finance Bank or its acquisition of Liquiloans.

Responding to the development, the company said it would continue to pursue civil and criminal action against Grover at the High Court, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and other relevant authorities.

"BharatPe has a stellar Board with Independent Directors under the guidance of Rajnish Kumar and we give the highest importance to governance, transparency and building a sustainable business. Recent media stories indicate that a letter with unsubstantiated allegations has been written to the RBI by Ashneer Grover. These allegations are frivolous and nothing but another desperate attempt to malign the company. We continue to pursue civil and criminal action against Grover at the Hon’ble High Court, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and other relevant authorities and is committed towards taking them to their logical conclusion," the company said in a statement on Thursday.

BharatPe is a joint-venture partner in Unity Small Finance Bank with the Centrum group. BharatPe has got an in-principle approval from the regulator for the payments aggregator business through its wholly owned subsidiary Resilient Payments.

Constituted in March 2018, BharatPe had Shashvat Nakrani and Bhavik Koladiya as co-founders, each owning 50% in the firm. Grover joined the firm as a third co-founder and board member in July 2018, and purchased 3,192 shares — 2,447 shares from Nakrani and 745 from Koladiya— for Rs 10 apiece. After the share transfer, the shareholding pattern of BharatPe changed. Koladiya had 42.5%, Grover had 31.9%, and Nakrani had 25.5%. 

In December 2022, BharatPe filed a civil suit against Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, as well as his relatives and sought Rs 88.67 crore in damages. 

BharatPe filed a criminal complaint against Grover and his family with the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, alleging criminal breach of trust, conspiracy, cheating, forgery and destruction of evidence. 

Also read: Ashneer Grover writes to RBI for probe into BharatPe’s shareholding: Report