The Delaware Bankruptcy Court found that Raveendran failed to comply with the discovery order and continued to be evasive on several occasions, the report said, citing the judgement issued on November 20.
“The court will enter default judgement against Defendant Raveendran…in the amount of USD 533,000,000, and on Counts II, V and VI in the amount of USD 540,647,109.29,” the report quoted the judgement.
The judgement required Raveendran to deliver a complete and precise account of the Alpha Funds and any related proceeds, such as the Camshaft LP Interest, including all subsequent transfers and resulting proceeds.
BYJU’s Alpha-GLAS Trust case details
BYJU’s Alpha was established while Raveendran was managing the edtech company Think and Learn Private Limited (TLPL), which functioned under the Byju’s brand name.
TLPL received a $1 billion Term Loan B from US-based lenders. Subsequently, the lenders alleged that BYJU’s Alpha had violated the loan terms, and $533 million of the total debt had been unlawfully transferred out of the US, the report said.
The Glas Trust approached the Delaware court and obtained a favourable order to take control of BYJU’s Alpha. Meanwhile, both BYJU’s Alpha and Glas Trust filed petitions in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for the discovery of transactions worth $533 million.
The November 20 judgement states that Raveendran was aware of the discovery order but simply refused to comply, the report said.
The court had also issued a contempt order in the matter, but noted that Raveendran continues to refuse to respond to the discovery requests or pay the sanctions he owes.
“The facts and circumstances of this case indicate that Raveendran’s continuing failure to adequately respond to the pending discovery requests is a personal decision by Raveendran, himself,” the judgement noted.
The court rejected Raveendran’s argument that the GLAS Trust has access to documents through the books of BYJU’S Alpha on the information they are looking for. It noted that there is nothing in the record to support the assertion GLAS has access to relevant documents.
“The court has also found that Raveendran’s behaviour has been a strategic pattern of willful failure to comply with discovery,” the judgement said.
The court has already determined that Raveendran is in contempt of the previous discovery orders and has imposed sanctions of USD 10,000 per day until he purges his contempt.
“The monetary sanctions, however, remain unpaid and have been ineffective. Raveendran lives abroad and apparently has no intention of satisfying his financial penalties or complying with the discovery orders. Accordingly, the monetary sanctions have not provided an effective remedy, making a harsher sanction such as default judgement appropriate in this instance,” it said.
