US Court orders Byju to pay over $1 bn on petition of Alpha, GLAS Trust

A US court has issued a default judgment directing edtech entrepreneur Byju Raveendran to personally pay back over USD 1 billion, following a 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 also instructs Raveendran to provide a complete and accurate accounting of the Alpha Funds, the proceeds involved, and all subsequent transfers, including assets such as the Camshaft LP Interest.An email query sent to Raveendran’s authorised agency did not receive an immediate response.
BYJU’s Alpha was incorporated when Raveendran was overseeing the management of Think and Learn Private Limited (TLPL), the parent entity operating under the Byju’s brand. TLPL had secured a USD 1 billion Term Loan B from US-based lenders, who later alleged that BYJU’s Alpha violated loan terms and that USD 533 million from the facility had been moved out of the US improperly.Following these allegations, GLAS Trust approached the Delaware court and obtained an order giving it control of BYJU’s Alpha. Both BYJU’s Alpha and GLAS Trust then moved the bankruptcy court seeking discovery of the USD 533 million and related fund movements.In its latest order, the court concluded that Raveendran was aware of the discovery mandate but “simply refused to comply.” It noted that a previous contempt order had already been issued, yet Raveendran continued to ignore the discovery requests and did not pay the sanctions imposed on him.
“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 stated. It dismissed Raveendran’s contention that GLAS Trust could access the required information through BYJU’s Alpha’s records, adding that no evidence supported this claim.The ruling further observed that Raveendran’s conduct “has been a strategic pattern of willful failure to comply with discovery.” While the court had imposed a USD 10,000-per-day sanction until he purged the contempt, the penalties remain unpaid.“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 court said.