BharatPe sacks staff, vendors; to claw back shares from Ashneer Grover

Payments startup BharatPe, which has been witnessing a tussle between promoters and investors, on Tuesday said it has decided to claw back former founder Ashneer Grover’s restricted shares in the company. It has also terminated several employees and vendors as well as filed criminal cases against them for misconduct.

“If required, the company will be filing criminal cases against some of these employees for misconduct and act of cheating committed by them against the company,” BharatPe said in a statement.

“Many vendors involved in malpractices, such as incorrect or inflated invoices, have been blocked from further business with the company… the company has already issued legal notices to these vendors to recover the amount and will be filing civil or criminal cases against them in the coming days,” it said. Further, BharatPe said it was introducing a new vendor procurement policy to mitigate any risk of employees indulging in suspicious transactions to personally benefit from them.

These developments come after the conclusion of a two-month long corporate governance review carried out by Alvarez & Marsal, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and PwC. Without naming Grover, the company said necessary action has been initiated “against the former founder to claw back his restricted shares as per the shareholders’ agreement. It will take all steps to enforce its right under the law”.