Zilingo fires CEO Bose over financial irregularities

Zilingo Pte, an e-commerce platform for the apparel industry, has fired its chief executive officer Ankiti Bose, following an investigation by a forensic firm into alleged financial irregularities, it said on Friday.

Bose was suspended in March after an attempt to raise new funds prompted questions about the Sequoia Capital-backed company’s accounting.

“Following an investigation led by an independent forensics firm that was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate Ankiti Bose’s employment with cause and reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action,” Zilingo said.

Calling her termination a witch-hunt, Bose said she would pursue her rights to the full extent of the law. Bose said she had neither seen the investigator’s reports nor had been provided time by the company to furnish supporting documents. “I have been suspended for the last 51 days on the basis of an anonymous whistleblower complaint, and today I am informed that my employment has been terminated inter alia on the grounds of ‘insubordination’,” Bose said in a statement on Instagram.

A person familiar with the development said that the Zilingo board gave Bose 24 hours to appear before it on 19 May and then sacked her over email for “insubordination” for failing to present herself. The company, however, said that Bose had been terminated ‘for serious financial irregularities’.

Singapore-based Zilingo, which is also backed by Temasek Holdings Pte, earlier this month also said the decision to suspend India-origin Bose was jointly taken by the board and not by any individual investor.

Bose denied any wrongdoing. “I haven’t done anything wrong, I have only spoken up to bullies, and I will be sharing my side of the story soon,” Bose wrote on the social media platform on Friday.

Bose had previously alleged harassment at the company, which she co-founded with Dhruv Kapoor in 2015. Those complaints had been looked into, the company said on Friday.

“On 11 April, after her suspension on 31 March, Ankiti Bose brought to the board’s attention, for the first time, certain harassment-related issues pertaining to past time periods, which did not include any harassment complaints against investors or their nominees,” the company said on Friday.

The investigation has concluded that “the company took appropriate action and followed due process”. Zilingo hired accounting firm Deloitte to look into the harassment charges raised by Bose.