"Will Be Last Man Standing": Ashneer Grover On Fake Invoices Charge

BharatPe's former CEO and co-founder Ashneer Grover has hit out at the company, investors Sequoia Capital and people on social media who have been writing against him after the Economic Offences Wing's investigation pointed to a host of unexplained payments made to allegedly fake human resource consultancies by him, his wife and her family members. 

A status report filed by the agency in the Delhi High Court said Mr Grover, Madhuri Jain Grover and some of her family members allegedly used backdated invoices to move funds from BharatPe's accounts for payment of commissions for recruitment work.

As much as Rs 7.6 crore was paid to allegedly fake Human Resources consultancies, while Rs 1.66 crore was paid as penalty to GST authorities. Another Rs 71.76 crore was allegedly siphoned off via fictitious transactions. Sources said on Wednesday that the total amount could be over Rs 81 crore, and the investigation is still on. 

Reacting to reports on this, a defiant Mr Grover declared that he would be the "last man standing" after BharatPe, Sequoia, uneducated journalists and "Twitter judges" are gone. He also took a dig at Sequoia, saying the firm had wrapped up its operations in India. 

"I'll be last man standing long after 'BharatPe', Sequoia (oh sorry they already wrapped up in India), 2 takke ke anpadh press vaale and 'Twitter' judges are gone ! Mark my words !!" Mr Grover said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In the long post, Mr Grover also made a series of claims that BharatPe had not received any relief in the cases against him, the auditors of the firm had not found any fraud, and the Income Tax department had said that he had paid all due taxes. 

"Le Honourable HC : FIR quashing admitted and being heard. Not a single relief to BharatPe in multiple civil cases filed against me (after them having spent Rs 100 crores on lawyers).Le auditors (Deloitte): "NO 'Fraud' reported in the Company as per Annual Reports and company's financials are true and fair," the post said, 

"Le EOW: 'The investigation of the case is at initial stage and replies from various authorities are yet to be received and examined. Moreover, further course of investigation is in progress on the allegations levelled by the complainant in the present case'. Le IT Department : All Ashneer's funds are properly tax paid and no demand against him - investors bought Rs 80 crores of his BharatPe equity over 3 years. All ITRs, bank statements and balance sheets filed!" Mr Grover added.

The entrepreneur, who now runs a fantasy sports app, CrickPe, also claimed that, as far as the BharatPe board was concerned, there was only one "related party", Madhuri Jain, and all transactions had been ratified by the board. Mr Grover claimed the sign-off was done by board chairman Rajnish Kumar and he had "abstained from" that board meeting.

Madhuri Jain, the former head of controls at BharatPe, was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities. Mr Grover, who had shot to fame as one of the 'sharks' on Shark Tank India, later resigned as CEO in March 2022.