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It’s UTTER SHAME that Byju continues bringing down the Indian flag abroad, despite which some founders and VCs still privately celebrate him for his ambitions and rise 🙏🙏 Things have gotten so ugly that the US Court has slapped a daily fine of ~Rs 22lacs on Byju’s chief content officer and a key ally of the founder for contempt. And if you go deep into why, you realise that the founder has been such a big conman! Well, it’s gonna take some explanation. So, here we go! .. See, Byju’s had borrowed $1.2bn from lenders in the US to buy more American edtech companies. -> That money was borrowed using Byju’s US-owned edtech players - EPIC & OSMO -> However, the acquisitions never happened, the money disappeared, and the founder refused to pay back in a full public spat in 2023 Where did the money go? No one knows. It was claimed to have been used for business growth. But it was traced to a newbie Hawaiian hedge fund which operated from a room. From there, it was claimed to have been invested in some European companies. But, to date, nobody really knows. .. Outcome? Thus, the US court appointed a trustee to manage those profitable assets (EPIC & OSMO) while finding a new buyer so that the lenders could get back whatever remained. -> And this is when Byju, sitting out of India, orchestrated a grand heist -> His team lured rogue folks at Apple and Google to transfer the ownership of EPIC & OSMO apps, redirecting big monthly revenues to their own pockets -> They also moved the source codes of the two platforms and changed account names .. And, while all of this was in the US, the corrupt founder who walks freely here in India had another scheme in the works. -> Undergoing bankruptcy proceedings here as well, Byju’s is under the control of a NCLT-appointed trustee -> And somehow, the founder got the trustee to exclude the US lenders from the committee of creditors! This was significant because the American lenders were owed much of the money. Without them, the ball fell in the founder’s favour. Thankfully, the court heavily punished the trustee and reinstated the US lenders on the committee. .. The international startup and investor community is watching this disaster unfold and how the Indian authorities manage this situation where the founder roams around freely with big assets to his name. And I know, many more of such frauds keep coming out in the Indian startup ecosystem - GoMechanic, BharatPe, Housing, Zilingo, Trell, 4B Networks and many more. But, Byju’s case goes beyond all when it comes to bringing down the INDIAN FLAG. ..