Byju’s has sharply denied allegations made in a U.S. lawsuit that accuses the Indian edtech company’s top leadership of misappropriating $533 million, calling the case a “baseless” and “frivolous” attempt by lender representatives to seize control of the firm through what it describes as “nefarious” tactics.
In a scathing statement issued following the lawsuit filed by lenders to its U.S.-based entity Byju’s Alpha Inc., the company said, “This lawsuit is nothing but yet another cog in the wheel of lies that GLAS, the illegal representative of disqualified lenders in the US, has been rotating for a long time now.”
The company accused GLAS Trust Company, which represents certain lenders, of launching a coordinated effort to “intimidate” Byju’s management. “Their strategy for the last two years has revolved around filing flimsy lawsuits and then peddling them through media to whitewash their criminal and unethical activities in India,” the company alleged.
Byju’s said it had submitted a “signed and verified affidavit” to a U.S. court detailing “how the entire $1.2 billion loan was spent, to the last dollar,” accusing the lender’s legal team of ignoring the affidavit and deliberately recycling “old news.”
The company also suggested the timing of the lawsuit was suspicious, coming just days after the public release of an FIR and a bribery video involving an Indian court official—events that Byju’s claims expose efforts to derail insolvency proceedings against its parent company. “It is certainly no coincidence,” the statement reads, “that this lawsuit was filed just after these developments.”
The response follows a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court of Delaware by Byju’s Alpha Inc., a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to raise $1.2 billion in term loans. The suit alleges that company founder Byju Raveendran, co-founder Divya Gokulnath, and senior executive Anita Kishore orchestrated a “lawless scheme” to siphon off $533 million from the loan proceeds into a shadowy fund named Camshaft Capital, purportedly in exchange for limited partnership interests.
The lenders allege that Camshaft Capital had no credible investment history and shared its address with a pancake restaurant. They further claim the fund was used to “conceal and steal” assets from Byju’s Alpha, which had defaulted on its loan obligations starting in 2022.
But Byju’s has pushed back, suggesting the case is more political than legal. The company has demanded an investigation under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), alleging collusion and bribery involving GLAS representatives and Indian officials. It named individuals from GLAS, Redwood, and HG Vora—two of the disqualified lenders—alleging their complicity in a wider scheme to manipulate legal proceedings both in the U.S. and India.