- Saturday, November 23, 2024
Raveendran tried to use loan proceeds that he allegedly hid from US lenders to buy back the subsidiary, a businessman stated in his declaration to a US bankruptcy court
By: Shajil Kumar
BYJU RAVEENDRAN, the founder of the trouble education tech firm Byju’s, had allegedly tried to regain control of a US-based company Epic! that was taken over by an American trustee, according to a filing at a US-based bankruptcy court.
Byju’s is currently facing bankruptcy proceedings and is under court supervision both in India and the US.
Raveendran tried to use loan proceeds that he allegedly hid from US lenders to buy back Epic!, Nebraska businessman William R. Hailer stated in his court declaration, Bloomberg reports.
According to the filing with the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, Hailer, a former political consultant, was recruited by Byju’s to try to buy out US creditors.
Raveendran planned to swap that debt for ownership of education software company Epic!, but the plan ultimately failed.
He had earlier wired $11.25 million to Hailer’s company Rose Lake Inc. Hailer was supposed to use the cash to convince the lenders, and later return the sum to Raveendran.
The money came from OCI Ltd., a UK-incorporated logistics firm that received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan proceeds that US lenders have been trying to reclaim, according Hailer’s court filing.
Aakash case
The move comes shortly after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in India blocked Aakash Educational Services from passing a resolution to amend its Articles of Association (AoA), a move that prevents Byju’s alleged attempt to dilute its stake in the firm, Moneycontrol.com reports.
The interim order, passed by the tribunal on November 20, stops any changes to Aakash’s governance structure until the tribunal issues a final decision in the ongoing legal dispute.
