OCI founder Oliver Chapman, in a sworn declaration, said Raveendran intended to divert most of the $533 million to a Singapore entity owned by him for personal use. The filing comes as Byju’s Alpha, now controlled by creditors who lent $1.2 billion to Byju’s, is seeking the court’s approval for a settlement with OCI.
“The Alpha funds were not used for “legitimate commercial purposes,” as Raveendran swore to the world under penalty of perjury. Nor was the money used by OCI to procure goods and services, such as tablets and advertising, for Think & Learn (TLPL),” it said in a filing.
On April 10, the US lenders had filed a lawsuit in the US against Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath, and former company executive Anita Kishore. The suit alleged that the three of them had planned and executed a scheme to hide and misappropriate $533 million from the money they had lent to Byju’s Alpha, an SPV the edtech had established to receive the loan.
The filing further alleged that former OCI executive Rupin Banker, working alongside Raveendran and others, had “abused” OCI to carry out the fraud.
Raveendran has denied all allegations made in the US court filing.
“This submission to the Delaware Court does not address the fact that Glas Trust (which represents Byju’s’ US lenders) has been aware that the monies from the Alpha loans were not used by Byju Raveendran or any founder of Byju’s for their personal gain, but were used for the benefit of TLPL,” said J Michael McNutt, senior litigation advisor, Lazareff Le Bars Eurl (a law firm that represents Byju’s).
“Glas Trust controls TLPL and the resolution professional should be confronted and held responsible to explain the use of these funds,” he added.
This comes at a time when Byju’s is grappling with multiple legal battles. On July 7, the Delaware court held Raveendran in civil contempt for failing to comply with its orders to share documents pertaining to the case related to the $1.2 billion term loan.
ET reported in June that Think & Learn’s resolution professional (RP) had filed lawsuits at the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) claiming that Raveendran, Gokulnath, and Riju Ravindran owed compensation to the company for fraudulent transfers of the company’s assets.