Sridhar Vembu Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu denies fraud allegation by estranged wife, calls it 'complete fiction'
Tamil Nadu/IBNS: Zoho Corp founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu, who is currently in the process of divorcing his wife, has refuted allegations of deserting her and their child.
After spending almost 25 years residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Vembu has relocated to Mathalamparai village in Tamil Nadu.
Forbes recently reported that the billionaire entrepreneur, who has been valued at almost $5 billion, is currently in the process of divorcing his wife, Pramila Srinivasan. The article suggested that he had deserted his wife and their special needs child, and was preventing them from obtaining their rightful share.
In response, the tycoon took to Twitter to refute these accusations.
In his tweet, he wrote, "I never ever transferred my shares in the company to anyone else. I lived in the US for the first 24 years of our 27-year history and much of what constitutes the company was built in India. That is reflected in the ownership. It is complete fiction to say I financially abandoned Pramila and my son.
"They enjoy a far richer life than I do and I have supported them fully. My US salary for the last 3 years has been with her, and I gave our house to her. Her foundation also is supported by Zoho."
1/ With vicious personal attacks and slander on my character, it is time for me to respond.
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) March 14, 2023
This is a deeply painful personal thread. My personal life, in contrast to my business life, has been a long tragedy. Autism destroyed our lives and left me suicidally depressed.
According to Forbes, Pramila Srinivasan has alleged that Sridhar Vembu purposely divested a significant portion of his Zoho shares through a complicated transaction that transferred the company's intellectual property to India and subsequently allocated most of the shares to his sister and her husband, all without her knowledge.
In the divorce lawsuit filed in California, Pramila Srinivasan stated in a court document, "My husband of 29 years not only abandoned me and his son with special needs in 2020."
"He decided to make fictitious transfers or 'sales' of our most valuable community asset to his family members without their paying any cash or other consideration, and without ever telling me or asking my permission," the statement further stated.
According to a Forbes article, Sridhar Vembu filed for divorce from his wife in August 2021 after being together for 29 years.
The report suggests that Vembu's decision to divorce was not solely motivated by his desire to create job opportunities in rural areas and encourage knowledge sharing among his employees, for which he has been commended and awarded the Padma Shri award.
The article implies that there may have been other factors that influenced his decision to relocate to India.
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