Byju Raveendran, the founder of Byju’s, which is in trouble, has received another big blow from the US Bankruptcy Court and after this order, the matter seems to be becoming more serious. According to available information, a US court in Delaware has ordered Raveendran to repay an amount of more than 1.07 billion dollars, to which he has expressed strong objection and said that he will appeal against this decision.
Let us inform you that this order is related to the case in which a large part of the $1.2 billion term loan taken in 2021 was allegedly wrongly transferred and the lenders had taken legal steps to get the same amount back. The court has found that approximately $533 million was transferred from Byju’s US unit in 2022 and the amount has not been returned later. It is noteworthy that the court has also mentioned serious irregularities in the information related to a separate investment stake, the value of which is said to be around $540 million.
In the current case, the lenders had claimed that Raveendran and his team did not comply with court orders, did not attend several hearings and provided incomplete and evasive documents. On this basis, the court has issued a default judgment, the hearing of which was held on 29 September and after which this order has been issued on 20 November.
In the statement issued by Raveendran, his legal advisor has said that the court did not pay attention to the complete information and has given this order without listening to his side. He says that the lenders gave wrong information to the court and the money in dispute was not used for any personal use but was used for the operation of the company Think and Learn. They also say they are now preparing to file a claim for at least $2.5 billion in damages in multiple countries against the Glass Trust and other parties, which could be filed by the end of 2025 if no settlement is reached.
It is worth noting that till a few years ago Byju’s was considered to be the most valuable startup company of India and its valuation had reached $ 22 billion, but in the last two years the company has been facing many legal disputes, lack of funding, large-scale layoffs and management disputes. Investors are also continuously putting pressure and the lenders are continuing to tussle for control over the company, due to which the situation is getting worse.
The court also wrote in its order that Raveendran’s behavior further complicated the case and he also did not comply with the earlier fine, which included a penalty of $10,000 per day. In such a situation, the court has said that this relief is extraordinary because the entire case has come to light under very unusual circumstances.
At present, all parties in the case have been given seven days to file their formal response to this order and after this further hearing will be scheduled.
