India’s Anti-Money Laundering Agency Finds $1 Billion Violation at Byju’s
India’s Enforcement Directorate, its anti-money laundering agency, has found that Byju’s violated the nation’s foreign exchange law to the tune of $1.08 billion, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The findings, which ED plans to make public as early as Tuesday, follows the agency searching the premises of Byju’s and its founder Byju Raveendran in late April. At the time, the agency said it had found and seized “incriminating” documents and digital data at the firm’s premises.
Byju’s said at the time that it was confident that the Enforcement Directorate will find that the startup, once valued at $22 billion, is in compliance with all local laws. In a statement on Tuesday, a Byju’s spokesperson said the company hadn’t received a notice from the ED.
The ED’s finding is the latest headache for the Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which has spent the last six months correcting several mistakes.
The startup, backed by Prosus, Peak XV, Sofina, BlackRock, UBS, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, missed its revenue target for the financial year ending in March last year, the startup disclosed in a much-delayed account this month.
Byju’s CFO Ajay Goel left the startup to return to Vedanta late last month, following high-profile and abrupt departures of auditor Deloitte and three of Byju’s key board members in June. Prosus, which owns more than 9% of Byju’s and is one of its earlier backers, publicly slammed the Bengaluru-headquartered startup in July for not evolving sufficiently and disregarding the investor’s advice and recommendations despite repeated attempts.
