No Qualms About Sleeping Even On The Floor: Ashneer Grover Responds To BharatPe’s ‘Lavish Lifestyle’ Accusations

Just as everyone thought the boardroom drama surrounding BharatPe was over, the beleaguered ‘cofounder’, Ashneer Grover, seems to have hit back again.

Hours after he was publicly stripped of his title as cofounder and managing director of the fintech major, Grover has now slammed the Board for the statement issued against him.

In a post on LinkedIn, Grover tore into the Board saying that the members should ‘get back to their actual day jobs’, wishing the company and the Board a ‘speedy recovery.’

The verbal spat escalated after the Board, on March 2, issued a public statement alleging that Grover along with his wife Madhuri Jain indulged in misappropriation of funds at BharatPe.

The fintech major also alleged that the Grover couple and their relatives allegedly engaged in ‘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.’

In his rebuttal on social media, Grover said that ‘although he has been accused of living a lavish life at the company’s expense, he doesn’t mind sleeping on the floor while trying to raise funds for the company.’

To drive his point home, Grover even posted a picture of a mattress laid out on the floor. Under the picture, he lashed out at the Board again saying that, “I indeed have a very lavish lifestyle. I get invited by friends with open hearts to their homes, where I have no qualms sleeping on the floor. And this is when I am on the road in the US and UK raising $370M Series E. And I’ve the right to stay in any lavish hotel and charge it on the company issued credit card in my pocket.”

He was essentially referring to the $370 Mn Series E funding round raised by the fintech major last year when it turned into a unicorn. 

Grover also said that he was appalled by the personal nature of the BharatPe board’s statement, but not ‘surprised.’ He further added that, ‘It comes from a position of personal hatred and low thinking.’

Embezzlement Allegations Against Ashneer Grover

The post was put up right after BharatPe publicly hit out at Grover alleging that he had been “spinning lies and hurling baseless allegations and threats” against the company.

The fintech giant hit back with allegations of embezzlement, payments to fake vendors and syphoning money away from the company’s expense account against Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, who is the former head of controls at the company.

In its media statement, BharatPe further said that, “The Grover family and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendors through which they syphoned 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 has reiterated that Grover only resigned after receiving a notice that results of an internal inquiry would be presented to the board on March 1, 2022. The company says, “he quickly shirked responsibility by sending an email to the board submitting his resignation and fabricating another false narrative of the events to the public.”

These allegations had surfaced earlier this year too, but were based on unconfirmed leaks during the review process within BharatPe.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.