Audit in process: BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer urges employees to trust board for future action

BharatPe’s co-founder and managing director, Ashneer Grover has gone on a voluntary leave till April 1 and is reportedly seeking to sell his nearly 10 per cent stake in the fintech unicorn.  

BharatPe CEO, Suhail Sameer has written a letter to its employees on Friday morning stating that the company is “under constant scrutiny and spotlight” and “what is being written is nothing but unsubstantiated rumours”.

A letter has gone out from the CEO to the employees amidst a raging legal tussle between the BharatPe’s co-founder and managing director, Ashneer Grover and the company management which added there are some “serious allegations” and that the company is expecting to receive the interim review report from the auditors in a couple of weeks.

“Let me talk about the elephant in the room first --Governance Review being carried out by well-known and reputed external firms (SAM, A&M and PwC). Based on some internal complaints, we decided to do a full audit of our governance processes. While many of the findings of the review are pretty standard for a fast growth company of our size, there are a couple of more serious allegations, which the review is still substantiating. Nothing which can't be corrected going forward, and none of it has any bearing on the medium to long term health of the business. We expect the review partners (consultants) to share an interim report with the Board in a couple of weeks,” Sameer wrote.

“Meanwhile, I would just request all of you to keep your trust on the board of BharalPe, which comprises some of the best investors in the world, and veterans of the Indian banking Industry. Whatever the board decides will be beyond doubt, in the best interests of our employees, our merchants and our consumers,” Sameer added.

Grover has gone on a voluntary leave till April 1 and is reportedly seeking to sell his nearly 10 per cent stake in the fintech unicorn.

According to a report on Economic Times, Grover had written to BharatPe’s board asking to remove Sameer from the company’s board of directors indicating the growing chasm between the top management of the fintech company and its embattled cofounder.