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- Singapore Court Finds Byju Raveendran Guilty Of Hiding Assets, Fines Him SGD 1 Million
New Delhi13 minutes ago
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Byju Raveendran is already facing a legal dispute with foreign investors.
Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran, who made the country’s first edtech startup a unicorn, has been sentenced to 6 months in jail by a Singapore court. The court has found him guilty of hiding papers related to his assets and contempt of orders related to them.
According to people associated with the Singapore Court case, Byju Raveendran did not comply with several orders given by the court related to his properties from April 2024.
After repeatedly ignoring the orders, the court declared him guilty and decided to send him to jail. The court has now directed Raveendran to surrender before the authorities.
A fine of Rs 67 lakh will also have to be paid
Along with the punishment, a fine of 90,000 Singapore dollars (about Rs 67 lakh) has also been imposed on Raveendran. They will have to pay this amount as legal expenses.
Apart from this, Raveendran has also been ordered to submit documents proving the legal ownership of ‘BR Investco Pte’ in the court. It is a corporate entity, which owns the shares of the concerned company.
Qatar Investment Authority had filed a case
This case was filed against Raveendran in the Singapore court by a subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund ‘Qatar Investment Authority’ (QIA). QIA had invested in Byju’s funding round when the company was going through a huge crisis and was laying off its employees.
In this case, ‘Drew & Napier’ presented the side of Qatar Holdings in the court. Whereas ‘Fervent Chambers’ advocated on behalf of Byju Investments. At present there has been no reaction from Ravindran on this punishment. It is also not clear whether they are currently present in Singapore or any other country.
Legal battle also going on with American investors
The jail sentence comes at a time when Raveendran is facing lawsuits from foreign investors across the world. Even in America, lenders are fighting a legal battle to recover a loan of $ 1.2 billion (about ₹ 11,000 crore) from him. This loan had come into controversy at a time when the financial condition of the company started deteriorating.
Raveendran started his company with the name ‘Think and Learn Private Limited’, which became known as ‘Byju’s’ worldwide. At one time he was counted among the most successful startup founders of India and this company made him a billionaire. This company, which received large-scale investment from global companies, was once considered the biggest ‘success story’ of the Indian startup world.
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