Indian payments startup BharatPe said on Tuesday its board had recommended several measures, including firing several employees and suppliers and filing criminal charges against them for misconduct, following a corporate governance review. BharatPe, whose IPO hopes to allow shopkeepers to make digital payments via QR codes, launched a corporate governance review in January in hopes of allaying investor concerns about a public spat over the personal investment of one of its co-founders.

The company, which competes with apps such as SoftBank’s Paytm and Google Pay in India’s booming payments market, has come under fire from investors and investors after co-founder Ashneer Grover sought compensation from Kotak Mahindra Bank head Uday Kotak. In January, Reuters reported that the audit would assess whether senior BharatPe executives made appropriate internal disclosures of personal investments and check for conflicts, leading to a new code of conduct.

After a detailed review of a report, BharatPe’s board recommended several decisive steps to determine the former founders’ willful misconduct and gross negligence over the past two months, the company said in a statement.
BharatPe said it was introducing a new supplier procurement policy to reduce the risk of employees getting rich by indulging in suspicious transactions. It had also fired several employees in departments directly linked to blocked suppliers.

“Many suppliers involved in misconduct, such as erroneous or inflated invoices, have been prevented from doing further business with the company. The company has issued legal notices to these suppliers to recover the amount and will be prosecuted against them in civil or criminal proceedings in the days to come,” added BharatPe.