Byju Raveendran denies making secret payments to government officials to resolve FEMA cases

Byju Raveendran, the founder of troubled edtech firm Byju’s, has denied allegations made in a Delaware court by the counsel of Glas Trust. The trust, which represents US lenders who had given the company $1.2 billion in term loans, accused him of negotiating with Indian government officials to make “substantial unofficial payments”.

“GLAS counsel Ravi Shankar is at it again, lying to sway orders. He's peddling "reports" that I'm negotiating with high-ranking Indian officials for “substantial payments” – pure fiction, no evidence presented,” Raveendran wrote in a post on X, sharing a picture of the hearing transcript.



He further pointed out that the claims were made in a court case in which he is not a party, leaving him no opportunity to defend himself. The court on July 7 held Raveendran in civil contempt for failing to comply with its orders to share documents related to the case.

“We have received reports, your honor, suggesting that Byju Raveendran is negotiating with high-ranking Indian officials to make substantial payments, which we understand may be private and unofficial, to resolve various outstanding disputes,” Shankar said during the hearing, as per the transcript.

In his post, Raveendran accused Shankar of creating bias in the Delaware court to get favourable orders, including a $540 million order against Byju’s parent Think & Learn.

On April 10, the lenders had filed a lawsuit in the US against Raveendran, his wife Divya Gokulnath and former company executive Anita Kishore. The lawsuit alleged that the three of them planned and executed a scheme to hide and misappropriate $533 million from the money lent to Byju's Alpha, a special purpose financing vehicle the edtech company had established in the US to receive the loan.

Shankar claims these reports suggest private or unofficial deals to resolve Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) disputes.

“These FEMA probes were against TLPL – controlled now illegally by Glas represented by Shankar as 99% of the committee of creditors (CoC). Why will I even try to resolve something which doesn’t exist?,” said Raveendran.

According to Raveendran, all substantial payments were made to Think & Learn. “Today, I’ve nothing except my shares in TLPL! And, for the nth time, no monies are ‘missing’ and we do not have any of these monies,” he added.

“There simply should be no doubt that we have at all times acted within our rights. Raveendran’s threats are desperate and meritless, and the irony of Raveendran threatening to sue for defamation when he continues to unlawfully conceal what happened to the missing $533 million should be lost on no one,” said a spokesperson for Glas and the term loan B lenders.

The founders have already moved the National Company Law Tribunal in India, seeking a stay on the proceedings of the committee of creditors (CoC) of Think & Learn, and removal of the CoC-appointed resolution professional (RP).

“The Indian courts must protect TLPL, its employees and Byju’s founders from these baseless attacks by Glas,” said Raveendran.

This comes at a time when Raveendran and Gokulnath are planning to sue Glas Trust and other lenders to the edtech firm seeking $2.5 billion in damages for alleged reputational harm.

ET reported in June that Think & Learn’s RP has filed lawsuits at the NCLT claiming that Raveendran, Gokulnath and Riju Ravindran owed compensation to the company for fraudulent transfers of the company’s assets.

Also Read: EY-backed RP sues Byju’s Dubai-based marketing agent for Rs 1,597 crore