Payments start-up BharatPe, which has been witnessing a tussle between promoters and investors, on Tuesday said it has decided to claw back former founder Ashneer Grover’s restricted shares in the company.

The company has also terminated several employees and vendors as well as filed criminal cases against them for misconduct.

“If required, the company will be filing criminal cases against some of these employees for misconduct and act of cheating committed by them against the company,” BharatPe said in a statement.

“Many vendors involved in malpractices, such as incorrect or inflated invoices, have been blocked from further business with the company… the company has already issued legal notices to these vendors to recover the amount and will be filing civil or criminal cases against them in the coming days,” it said.

Further, BharatPe said it was introducing a new vendor procurement policy to mitigate any risk of employees indulging in suspicious transactions to personally benefit from them.

These developments come after the conclusion of a two-month long corporate governance review carried out by Alvarez & Marsal, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and PwC. Without naming Grover, the company said necessary action has been initiated “against the former founder to claw back his restricted shares as per the shareholders’ agreement. It will take all steps to enforce its right under the law”.

Grover currently holds roughly 8.5% in BharatPe, of which 1.4% is not vested. Earlier in the year, BharatPe had alleged embezzlement of funds by Grover and his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover, who was the head of controls at the Sequoia Capital-backed start-up. Grover had to go on a leave in January following allegations of using abusive language against Kotak Mahindra Bank staff and fraudulent practices.

In March, BharatPe first sacked Grover’s wife Madhuri Jain, this was followed by Grover resigning and the company stripping him of the co-founder and other titles over an alleged “extensive misappropriation of company funds” by “creating fake vendors” to siphon money and using “company expense accounts” to “enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles”.

BharatPe said it is in the process of appointing a new chief financial officer and will conduct internal audit regularly. “Mazars India, a global audit firm, has been appointed by the company as an internal auditor,” it said.

A new IT infrastructure management policy is also now in place.

BharatPe said it has registered the strongest quarter in its history during January-March this year. “We have registered 4x growth in our overall revenue over the same period last year. On a sequential basis, the growth has been 30%, despite the third wave of Covid-19.”