Chairman of Bharatpe Board Rajnish Kumar on February 5, said the Board would launch the “corrective action” based on the results of the audit report by Alvarez and Marsal risk advisors who examined the company’s governance issues, especially regarding personal investment by the Co-Founder Asheer Grover.
“Of course, there will be a corrective action depending on what the report said,” Kumar, former BOS Bank of India, the largest lender in India, told MoneyControl in exclusive interactions.
This is Kumar’s first comment on the raging controversy in Bharatpe, which is under the supervision of intense investors on alleged deviations of corporate governance and bitter internal struggles between Grover and Board.
Bharatpe, a payment company that offers shop owners with QR codes, involving Alvarez & Marsal to launch an independent governance audit. On February 4, MoneyControl accesses reports that suggest inconsistencies in dealing with vendors. Reports highlight the offer with vendors and payments to non-existent consultants.
Bharatpe also associated in PWC consultants for full-scale investigations into company practices, including accounting, approval, expenditure and recruitment processes.
Kumar, a veteran banker, said the council had not received a report by Alvarez and Marsal. He joined the Council of Bharatpe as chairman in October 2021.
Bharatpe along with Centrum’s financial services promotes Unity Small Finance Bank, which has acquired cooperative banks operating in a crisis and cooperative bank Maharashtra (PMC). The process of merging, which came into force on January 25, was still halfway.
Asked about how bigger corporate governance problems in Bharatpe were ignored or left unwittingly even though they had banking experts like him, Kumar said, “I joined the council in October 2021.” This is a real reference that the problem in Bharatpe has been brewed for several months.
For questions about whether he would order a probe about alleged irregularities in Bharatpe, Kumar said he would receive a call after Alvarez and Marsal reports were received by the council. “Let’s see,” Kumar said.
Kumar comment was significant because Bharatpe faced a raft of the problem, including severe denting in the picture.
Bharatpe calculates Global Tiger, Sequoia Capital and others as a tent investor.
Main findings
According to Alvarez and Marsal reports, Bharatpe claims to pay recruitment fees to employ consultants for employees they recruit. Alvarez and Marsal can confirm that some employees, as claimed to be employed through consultants, taken up.
However, the employee has revealed that they have no interaction with any consultants in the process and have no knowledge of their existence.
Also, in three examples of payments made to these consultants, the report found that Madhuri Jain Grover (married to Asheer Grover) itself received an invoice for payment and forward it to the account team.
This invoice was made by Shwetank Jain, who was Madhuri Jain Grover’s brother, according to the report. Vendors who accept payments as recruitment costs do not have web pages or portals and invoices provided by them also have similarities.
The report shows that all these invoices have the same type of letter, similar emails and physical addresses and even the same bank branch in some cases. “They are all, except one, have a panpat connection. It can be mentioned that Madhuri Grover comes from Panipat,” the report was marked.
