Analysis

Mangalore to Miami: Byju’s, a mystery middleman, and the curious case of the missing $533 million

Ravi Nair

Siddhartha Mishra

Nikhil Patwardhan

February 05, 2025 | 12 Min Read

Court documents shed more light on the $533 million that vanished from a $1.2 billion loan Byju's defaulted on, revealing the role of a controversial Mangalore-born businessman in orchestrating the edtech's massive offshore financial movements and adding a new dimension to its ongoing crisis.

In the ongoing saga of Byju's financial issues, perhaps the most glaring loose end in the tale is the case of $533 million that has seemingly vanished out of a loan of $1.2 billion the edtech company has defaulted on.

The first clues in the mystery began to emerge thanks to a lawsuit filed by US-based portfolio management company Benchmark Investments in September 2022 against a financial consultancy and its manager-partner, for allegedly making false claims about its involvement in a financial transaction. The transaction in question was between Byju’s and an obscure Delaware-based fund, Camshaft Capital.

In the lawsuit, Benchmark said that the financial consultancy, HarryMax Consultants and its manager Brett Borgersen, claimed they were owed money for facilitating transactions between Byju’s and Camshaft Capital.

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