BharatPe removes Ashneer Grover's profile from website

Fintech platform BharatPe on Thursday removed Ashneer Grover's profile and photo from its website after the company accused him, along with his wife Madhuri Jain, of allegedly engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds and grossly abusing company money to fund their lavish lifestyles.

The About Us page on the website now carries the names of Shashvat Nakrani, Co-Founder, Suhail Sameer, Chief Executive Officer, Bhavik Koladiya, another Co-founder and Nishit Sharma, Chief Revenue Officer, along with other senior executives.

However, Grover's LinkedIn page still shows him as a co-founder and Managing Director of BharatPe.

Along with BharatPe, Unity Small Finance Bank, which is a joint venture between BharatPe and the Centrum Group, has also removed his profile from its portal.

Grover on Tuesday midnight quit BharatPe in a dramatic fashion, amid serious allegations of financial wrongdoings against him and his wife.

"As a result of his misdeeds, (Ashneer) Grover is no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company," the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Grover family and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendors through which they siphoned money away from the company's expense account and grossly abused company expense accounts in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles," the company elaborated.

The board will not allow the "deplorable conduct of the Grover family to tarnish BharatPe's reputation or that of its hard-working employees and world-class technology".

Grover hit back at the Board of the company, saying he is "appalled at the personal nature of the BharatPe Board's statement, but not surprised".

In a LinkedIn post, he said that "it comes from a position of personal hatred and low thinking".

Slamming the Board, Grover said in the post that it "can get back to working soon. I as a shareholder am worried about the value destruction. I wish the company and the board a speedy recovery. Please get back to your actual day jobs".

BharatPe had earlier sacked his wife Madhuri Jain over allegations of financial irregularities during her tenure at the company as head of controls.

--IANS

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