NEW DELHI: A preliminary investigation by risk advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) commissioned by BharatPe’s board has found fraudulent transactions linked to Madhuri Grover, wife of the company’s co-founder Ashneer Grover and the firm’s controller till recently.
The transactions are related to irregularities in payment to fictitious vendors. The probe says the firm pays fee to ‘consultants’ for employees recruited through them. “In 5 sample cases, the employees have confirmed their date of joining as slated in the vendor invoice. But they have denied being recruited or engaged through the stated consultant or any knowledge of them,” it said.
The document notes that in at least three instances, Madhuri Grover has received the invoices from vendors and forwarded these to the accounts team for payment. The invoices were created by Shwetank Jain, brother of Madhuri Grover. It also found that close to `51 crore was paid to 30 vendors who appeared to be non-existent.
The DGGI conducted searches at the company’s head office on Oct 21 last year, according to the document. On 11 Nov 2021, the company sent a communication to the DGGI on this issue. The letter was signed by “Deepak Jagdishram Gupta”. The A&M document says Gupta was responsible for procurements at the company and is Madhuri Grover’s brother-in-law. In this letter, Gupta said it is on the basis of DGGI probe they have come to know that some of the vendors of their company do not exist.
In a statement on Friday, BharatPe said, “We are deeply pained that the integrity of the BharatPe board or individual board members is being questioned time and again through misrepresented facts and baseless allegations. The Board in all its actions has followed due process in the best interest of the company. We would urge that the confidentiality and integrity of the governance review and board meetings is maintained by all,” it said.
