Interim report on governance lapses in BharatPe in two weeks: CEO

BharatPe chief executive Suhail Sameer in a communication to employees has stated that there were a couple of “serious allegations” of governance lapses, which warranted a fine-tooth-comb audit of governance practices by outside experts. He requested them to keep their trust in the leadership amid cofounder Ashneer Grover’s tussle with the company’s board and said the interim report of the auditors should come in the next couple of weeks. Sameer did not elaborate on the allegations.

Grover, who was sent on a three-month leave following allegations of using abusive language against Kotak Mahindra Bank staff and fraudulent practices, has denied all allegations. BharatPe CEO in the letter to employees, a copy of which is with PTI, said a governance review is being carried out by well-known and reputed external firms (SAM, Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) and PwC).

“Based on some internal complaints, we decided to do a full audit of our governance processes,” he said. “While many of the findings of the review are pretty standard for a fastgrowth company of our size, there are a couple of more serious allegations, which the review is still substantiating.” Stating that there is nothing that can’t be corrected going forward, he said none of these has any bearing on the medium to the long-term health of the business.

BharatPe was better known for its QR code aggregator app, service and surprise bank licence until an audio clip surfaced on social media with claims of Grover, who is co-founder and managing director of the firm, abusing and threatening a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee for missing out on share allotment during the initial public offer of FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which operates online fashion and wellness company Nykaa. Later, Grover reportedly stated that he was “armtwisted” by the company’s investors into going on leave and had lost confidence in CEO Sameer Suhail, and he should be removed.