Plot around BharatPe, MD Ashneer Grover saga thickens; CEO Suhail Sameer writes letter to disgruntled employees

As the plot around BharatPe and its Co-founder/Managing Director Ashneer Grover saga thickens, the newly-appointed CEO Suhail Sameer has written a letter to disgruntled employees, saying that there are some "serious allegations" based on internal complaints which are being reviewed and they must keep their faith in the Board.

Assuring them to have a "trust" in the Board, Suhail said that it is his "commitment, also on behalf of the wider leadership, that we'll emerge stronger from all this".

He said the company will set up a town-hall meeting towards the end of this month to "share updates about governance review" and other announcements.

While Alvarez and Marsal, a leading management consultant and risk advisory firm, is expected to submit its report into financial irregularities at the firm during Grover's time in "a couple of weeks", global audit firm PwC has also been roped in auditing the functioning of the fintech platform.

Sameer said in the letter that the "internal governance review is being carried out by firms (Shardul Amarchand, A&M and PwC). Based on some internal complaints, we decided to do a full audit of our governance processes".

While many findings of governance review are "pretty standard", there are "a couple of more serious allegations," he wrote, saying the review is still "substantiating the allegations".

Sameer said that whatever the Board decides, it will be in the best interest of employees, merchants and consumers.

Meanwhile, reports have claimed that several BharatPe employees are looking for job change amid the saga.

According to sources, Ashneer may decide to sell his 9.5 per cent stake in BharatPe at around $1 billion valuation -- much lower than the earlier reported figure of Rs 4,000 crore that he may have received from selling his stake at an earlier $6 billion valuation from the company he co-founded in 2018 with its headquarters in New Delhi.