Ashneer Grover: The shark may be tanking; the complete battle with BharatPe

Ashneer Grover, the guy famous (or should we call it infamous?) for his rude attitude, has been in the limelight of late, but not just because of the hot show Shark Tank India.

You could not have ignored 'proud' Grover reiterating on the show about how he has built a $3 billion company in just three years.

Well, the most intriguing part of that episode was broadcasted today with Ashneer Grover resigning from the very same company, BharatPe.

The fintech company, in which Grover holds 9% and a co-founder position, was investigating a potential financial fraud and the preliminary internal investigation has pegged the magnitude of the financial misconduct at over Rs 50 crore.

Grover has also lost an arbitration that he had filed against the company's investigation against him, with an emergency arbitrator holding that there was no ground to stop governance review at the fintech firm, as per the reports.

But you might have caught the Ashneer Grover show midway.. so let's get in the flashback!

The real show began when a call recording got leaked on social media a few weeks back that had Grover abusing a senior management personnel of Kotak Mahindra Bank and even giving him threats to encounter.

The point of contention between the two was Kotak Mahindra Bank’s inability to provide financing worth Rs 500 crore for Grover and family to subscribe to shares in the Nykaa IPO.

Although Grover neglected the authenticity of the audio clip and sent out a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank.

That's when the war started.

On January 19, Grover went on voluntary leave till March and social media ran abuzz with unverified reports that Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, also the Head of controls at BharatPe, have been asked to exit the company and their shares had been seized by the board. Although these hard allegations were refuted, but as they say where there is smoke there is fire.

BharatPe issued a statement, saying it is conducting an investigation and audit of the firm, with a new twist emerging about alleged financial irregularities in the company.

Grover who seems to be having a ride of a time as a TV celebrity has hired a Delhi-based legal firm Karanjawala & CP in order to keep his interests and 9% stake protected in the company amid reports of financial investigations and controversies.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) alongside Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) have been doing the audit. That review threw up alleged misuse of funds by Madhuri Jain, head of controls at BharatPe and wife of Ashneer Grover.

Jain, who helmed procurement, finance and human resources for the company's early days, was fired following the review. And now, shark Ashneer as well!

So, is it the threat to Kotak that has hit back at the thing (ownership of BharatPe) Ashneer Grover was most proud of or the bragging has led to 'the shark' tank.

Just one word for the whole show here, touche!