Ashneer Grover, Deepak Shenoy trade barbs amid fresh BharatPe fraud revelations

New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) After Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) uncovered that Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover were allegedly involved in generating backdated invoices to channel funds at BharatPe, CapitalMind founder and CEO Deepak Shenoy and Ashneer Grover traded barbs at each other on Thursday.

In May this year, the EOW had registered an FIR against former BharatPe Managing Director Ashneer Grover for alleged cheating and fraud of Rs 81 crore.

“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,” Shenoy posted on X.

He also said that more than Rs 53 crore was reportedly paid to "sham" companies, owned or connected to 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 CEO posted on X.

Ashneer Grover replied, saying he will be the last man standing long after ‘BharatPe’.

Shenoy then told Ashneer Grover: “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."

Ashneer Grover again replied: "Maine to tujhe judge bola - tune judge ko a**hole bola. Self-realisation achhi hai vaise teri."

Shenoy commented: "Vaise yahan bhi accha imagination use kar rahe ho, ab samajh aaya. 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.”

Recent investigations by the Delhi Police's EOW have uncovered alleged financial irregularities in BharatPe's operations.

Eight HR consulting firms associated with Grover's family, such as True Work Co., Team Source, and Impulse Marketing filed bills with closed bank accounts, indicating the potential fabrication of invoices, as per reports.

The investigation revealed that these seemingly distinct entities shared the same registered address, sparking concerns about their legitimacy and independence, possibly hinting at a conflict of interest.

“The use of backdated invoices not only raises issues of financial impropriety, but also questions the transparency and accountability of BharatPe's financial operations,” stated the reports.

Additionally, the EOW's difficulty in tracing vendor payments adds a layer of complexity, prompting scrutiny into BharatPe's due diligence in its business transactions.

A senior police officer privy to the investigation said that a probe is going on while refraining from going into the details of it.

--IANS

na/arm