US Court Issues Default Judgement Against Byju Raveendran, Making Him Liable To Pay Back $1 Billion

New Delhi: A US court has issued default judgement making Byju Raveendran liable to personally pay back over USD 1 billion based on the petition filed by BYJU's Alpha and US-based lender GLAS Trust Company LLC.According to the judgement dated November 20, 2025, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court found that Raveendran failed to comply with its discovery order and continued to be evasive on several occasion.

"The court will enter default judgment against Defendant Raveendran...in the amount of USD 533,000,000, and on Counts II, V and VI in the amount of USD 540,647,109.29," the judgement said.The judgment directed Raveendran to provide a full and accurate accounting of the Alpha Funds and any proceeds thereof, such as the Camshaft LP Interest, including each and every subsequent transfer and any proceeds thereof.

Email query sent to Raveendran's authorized agency did not elicit any immediate reply.BYJU's Alpha was incorporated when Raveendran was running the management of edtech firm Think and Learn Private Limited (TLPL), which operated under Byju's brand name.TLPL had secured USD 1 billion Term Loan B from US-based lenders. The lenders had later alleged that BYJU's Alpha has violated terms of the loan and USD 533 million out of the total debt has been moved out of the US illegitimately.

The Glas Trust moved Delaware court and received a favourable order to take control of BYJU's Alpha.Both BYJU's Alpha and Glas Trust moved the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for the discovery of USD 533 million and related transactions.According to the latest judgement dated November 20, the court found that Raveendran had knowledge of the discovery order but had simply refused to comply.

The court had also issued contempt order in the matter but noted that Raveendran continues to refuse to respond to the discovery requests or pay the sanctions he owes."The facts and circumstances of this case indicate that Raveendran's continuing failure to adequately respond to the pending discovery requests is a personal decision by Raveendran, himself," the judgment noted.The court rejected Raveendran's argument that the GLAS Trust has access to documents through the books of BYJU'S Alpha on the information they are looking for. It noted that there is nothing in the record to support the assertion GLAS has access to relevant documents.

"The court has also found that Raveendran's behaviour has been a strategic pattern of willful failure to comply with discovery," the judgement said.The court has already determined that Raveendran is in contempt of the previous discovery orders and has imposed sanctions of USD 10,000 per day until he purges his contempt.

"The monetary sanctions, however, remain unpaid and have been ineffective. Raveendran lives abroad and apparently has no intention of satisfying his financial penalties or complying with the discovery orders. Accordingly, the monetary sanctions have not provided an effective remedy, making a harsher sanction such as default judgment appropriate in this instance," the judgement said. 

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