BENGALURU: Fintech firm BharatPe has fired co-founder Ashneer Grover's wife Madhuri Jain over "misappropriation of funds". This move comes at a time when the company is awaiting an external audit report, which will be out in a few days.
A source aware of the development said the company has found certain financial irregularities and that she used funds for personal purchases, including for beauty regimens. Madhuri Jain was controller of finance at the company.
When contacted, BharatPe confirmed that Jain has been terminated. "We can confirm that services of Madhuri Jain Grover have been terminated in accordance with the terms of her employment agreement," the company said.
Also, the source said that she is not key management personnel and so there is no need to wait till the audit report is tabled. Soon after her termination, Jain on Twitter posted many videos of parties that took place at BharatPe’s office and took a dig at the CEO.
Earlier in January, Ashneer Grover informed the board that he will take a voluntary leave of absence from BharatPe till the end of March and will be back on April 1. The very next day, his wife too was sent on leave.
A week after Grover's voluntary leave, the BharatPe board started an independent audit of the firm's internal process and appointed Alvarez and Marsal, a management consultant and risk advisory firm, to advise the board.
Two weeks ago, BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer in a letter to employees had said that many of the findings of the review are pretty standard, and there are a "couple of more allegations, which the review is still substantiating".