Byju Raveendran says unable to attend US court hearing, cites travel ban and other cases

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BYJU Raveendran, founder of ed-tech Byju’s, has informed a US court of his inability to attend contempt proceedings against him later this month owing to other cases against him in Dubai and India. Documents accessed by TNM from the Delaware Bankruptcy Court show that he has also cited a recent travel ban against him in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

As a result, the current whereabouts of Raveendran, who was last seen publicly in Dubai, are uncertain. On June 11, he was banned from travelling out of the UAE. Earlier, assets belonging to him, his wife Divya Gokulnath and brother Riju Raveendran in the UAE were also attached in connection with the ongoing loan default case worth over a billion dollars.

Curiously, unlike his earlier declarations before the US court, Raveendran’s signature on the document informing the Delaware court that he would not be able to attend the hearing on June 30 in person did not include the place where the signature was taken. 

The travel ban against Raveendran was ordered after Glas Trust, the agent of a US-based consortium of 37 lenders, pleaded for the same in a UAE court. Raveendran aims to challenge this ban in a hearing on July 7. Glas Trust feared that “the Respondents may flee the State and defy the court orders issued against them.”

The case relates to the $540 million which went missing from a $1.2 billion term loan that Byju’s, once India’s most valued ed-tech startup, had taken out in November 2021. The travel ban order will lapse upon Raveendran depositing just over $540 million or providing a bank guarantee for the same amount.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) court order against Raveendran on June 11 said, “Having reviewed the documents submitted, it is hereby ordered to prevent the debtor (Byju Raveendran) from travelling and to circulate this Order to all border points of the State. This Order shall lapse upon: deposit of the sum for which the ban was issued, being $540,647,109.20 (equivalent to AED 1,985,834,677.39) or submission of a bank guarantee for the said amount.” 

On May 21, the same court acted against the Raveendran brothers and Divya Gokulnath, “ordering the attachment of their assets and properties up to the amount of $540,647,109.20.” A day earlier, the court had issued an order prohibiting the trio from transferring or disposing off their assets within or outside the DIFC up to $540 million. In addition, a travel ban was issued against Riju Raveendran on June 3. 

Glas added that it was necessary since it prevented Raveendran and others from “absconding” and from sparing Glas “the extreme burden of pursuing them once again in a new and unknown jurisdiction, or – even if their next destination is known – from having to initiate new legal proceedings abroad…”

Byju Raveendran’s last public comments on the case were broadcast on YouTube in a long sit-down interview with ANI, published by the news agency on May 17. The video begins with a highlights package of sorts, with ANI Editor Smita Prakash asking him, “Why are we doing this interview in Dubai?” 

According to Raveendran, he first left India in October 2019 and then stayed abroad to focus on “international expansion.” He told Smita that he and his family moved to Dubai in September 2021.

The international expansion for Byju’s is where the tech giant’s story unravelled. Ed-tech companies, once owned by Byju’s, are currently being auctioned off in the US after the loan default. However, the most damning part of the foreign foray is the missing USD 533 million out of a $1.2 billion loan which was taken out in November 2021, two months after Raveendran and his family set up a base in Dubai. 

On Thursday, June 26, Raveendran informed the Delaware Bankruptcy Court that he would be unable to attend an in-person hearing in Delaware. The hearing, scheduled for June 30, came about after Glas filed a contempt petition against Raveendran for defying court orders in the US. Raveendran had not complied with multiple deadlines to produce documents related to the term loan despite extensions.  

“...Byju still has not provided a shred of information or produced a single document. He has, however, successfully frustrated the purpose of seeking expedited discovery and, as the past has shown, given himself more time to further conceal the Alpha Funds and its proceeds or render his own knowledge obsolete. Byju must be held accountable for his contempt…” Glas had told the court. 

In his response, the 45-year-old said he was “busy preparing” for “multiple” cases filed against him in India and Dubai. Raveendran told the court that hearings in Dubai on July 4 and July 7 require his “active involvement.” 

Raveendran told the Delaware court that Glas had obtained the travel ban in Dubai “ex parte” (without his side being heard in court).  

“At the time this Order was issued, I was not in the territory of the United Arab Emirates. However, if I were to return to the United Arab Emirates, then I would be unable to leave. In addition, Debtor obtained a travel ban on my wife, Defendant Divya Gokulnath, effectively depriving me of seeing my wife and children as well as my father, who is in the United Arab Emirates for cancer treatment,” Raveendran said in his declaration to the court.