Byju founder allegedly urged ally to flee US to avoid testifying against him

Byju Raveendran, the founder of Byju’s, allegedly tried to get a Nebraska businessman to leave the US to avoid testifying in federal court about questionable activities he witnessed while working with the controversial executive, the businessman testified during a court hearing Thursday, according to Bloomberg. report.

William R. Hailer, the businessman in question, revealed that Raveendran sent him a plane ticket to Dubai just two days before he was scheduled to testify about Raveendran’s efforts to regain control of parts of the education empire of to Byju, which a court-appointed receiver seized. . A copy of the nearly $10,700 note was presented in court Thursday.

Raveendran reaffirmed a job offer with a salary of $500,000, urging Hailer to fly to Dubai immediately and begin work, Hailer told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John T. Dorsey during a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware. the report shows.

“He encouraged me not to testify,” Hailer claimed. “He said I should come to Dubai and said the salary would start from the first day.”

Judge Dorsey noted that Hailer’s testimony warranted referring the charges to federal prosecutors. Typically, the process involves the judge sending a letter to the US Department of Justice outlining potential criminal activity, after which federal prosecutors decide whether to launch an investigation.

According to a filing by Hailer, Raveendran has been trying to regain control of his struggling edtech empire, which is under court supervision both in India, where the parent company is based, and in the US, where some of its most valuable units. .

Earlier this year, Judge Dorsey held another of Byju’s business associates in contempt of court for fleeing the US just before he was scheduled to testify.

According to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, Raveendran allegedly enlisted Hailer, a former political consultant, to help buy out U.S. lenders owed more than $1.2 billion in loans. The goal was to swap that debt into ownership of Epic!, an education software company. However, the plan ultimately failed.

“For the past several months, I have been used as a pawn in Byju’s manipulation of the law,” Hailer wrote in a deposition filed earlier this week. He is set to testify in federal court today on behalf of a trustee who plans to sell Epic! to raise funds for Byju’s creditors, including US creditors, according to the report.

Raveendran has denied any wrongdoing in previous responses to the lenders’ allegations, arguing that his actions were a justified response to aggressive tactics used by lenders who specialize in extracting money from distressed companies.