A Singapore court sentenced BYJU’S founder Byju Raveendran to six months in prison for contempt of court.
Qatar Holdings, a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), initiated the legal action after Raveendran failed to disclose financial documents in an ongoing lawsuit filed in April 2024. The judicial order also imposed a fine of 90,000 Singapore Dollars on the founder.
The court ordered Raveendran to surrender immediately to Singapore authorities.
Additionally, the judge directed him to submit all ownership and asset documents related to Beeaar Investco Pte, a Singapore-registered corporate holding entity.
Raveendran currently resides in Dubai. He did not attend the court hearing.
The founder issued an official statement through his legal representatives regarding the judicial decision.
Raveendran said, “Today’s Singapore court matter is a procedural contempt of court order, arising only from disputes over document disclosure in ongoing proceedings, not a finding of fraud, dishonesty, or any wrongdoing on the merits.”
The court directed Raveendran to appear before the judicial authorities by June 15 to submit his formal appeal.
Raveendran said that offshore lenders, including GLAS Trust, and QIA spent the last three months in negotiations where all parties agreed to a standstill on active litigation. He described the continuation of the Singapore case as an unnecessary pressure tactic because all major stakeholders had already agreed to a settlement in principle.
Legal representatives of QIA said that the founder repeatedly missed deadlines to disclose where the investment capital was transferred.
Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, the parent company of BYJU’S, rapidly acquired multiple educational technology firms including WhiteHat Jr and Epic during 2020. The market valuation of the company reached 22 billion US Dollars at its peak in 2022.
Then, the collapse began.
Major international institutional investor BlackRock cut the implied valuation of the firm down to zero dollars following continuous financial delays. Three key global board members, representing Peak XV Partners, Prosus, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, resigned simultaneously from the board citing governance disputes.
The firm owes a 1.2 billion US Dollar term loan to United States lenders. This money remains under bankruptcy litigation in Delaware courts.
United States court documents show that lenders accuse the company of hiding 533 million US Dollars in an offshore hedge fund.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India issued a show-cause notice to the company for alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations totaling 9,362 crore Indian Rupees. Delayed financial audits, unpaid employee salaries, and unpaid debts eliminated the total valuation of the company over the last two years.
Insolvency resolution professionals now manage the daily operational affairs of the parent firm under Indian bankruptcy laws