BharatPe Shareholding Under Scrutiny: Ashneer Grover Writes to RBI

Ashneer Grover, a co-founder and former managing director of BharatPe, has written to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) requesting that the banking watchdog look into the company's stock,

which is backed by Peak XV. Together with the Centrum group, BharatPe is a joint venture partner in Unity Small Finance Bank.

In a March 6 letter to RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, Grover claimed that BharatPe had purposefully "defrauded" the regulator by adding Bhavik Koladiya, who was found guilty of wire fraud in the US, back to the company's cap table after obtaining many licenses.

Grover Raises Concerns Over BharatPe's Shareholder Practices

Grover, who had departed the firm in March 2022, requested an inquiry to determine if investors and the board had temporarily "stored" Koladiya's shares before bringing him back after the necessary central bank clearances were obtained.

Warehousing is the practice of accumulating shares for a while before to a firm acquisition by a big organization.

Grover also posed the question of whether the regulator would have approved BharatPe's acquisition of a controlling interest in non-banking finance company Liquiloans or even a 49% stake in Unity Small Finance Bank if Koladiya had been included in the company's cap table at the time of the license application.

Additionally, BharatPe has received regulatory clearance in principle to operate as a payments aggregator through its fully-owned subsidiary Resilient Payments.

The other cofounder, Shashvat Nakrani, transferred shares to Koladiya in 2022–2023, according to Grover's letter.

Koladiya was charged with wire fraud in the US in 2013. Citing the company's annual papers, he asserted that Nakrani gave 11.7% shares, or around ₹600 crore, to Koladiya at no cost.

Grover Calls for Stringent Actions Against BharatPe Amid Financial Concerns

Grover asked that all of the firm's licenses be removed and that none of the board members be allowed to take a directorship or management position in any organization that is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should the company be found guilty.

In addition, he called for the fintech startup's venture capital companies to be placed on a blacklist and to face financial penalties.

To far, BharatPe has funded over $600 million (approximately ₹5,000 crore) and provides digital payments using QR codes as well as consumer and commercial loans.

Its worth reached $2.7 billion in 2021. The business had been in negotiations to raise around $100 million in new stock since the previous year, but the transaction fell through.

Furthermore, on December 19 of last year, ET reported that the business intended to use non-convertible debentures to raise around ₹500 crore in debt.

Grover Seeks Dismissal of Fraud Allegations, Faces Travel Restrictions

Grover also sent a letter on March 4 to the Delhi Police's Economic Offenses Wing, requesting the dismissal of the first information report that had been filed against him due to purported fraud. He referred to the Deloitte audit report, which concluded that there had been no fraud. Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain were denied permission by Delhi Police to travel to London earlier. On November 6 of last year, Grover and Jain became the subject of a lookout circular that prohibited them from traveling overseas