‘Grieving’ Fired Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose Responds to Questions of Mystery Payments

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Ankiti Bose, who was fired last week as chief executive officer of the Singapore startup Zilingo Pte, says she’ll keep fighting to clear her name.

The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her employment after an investigation into claims of what it called “serious financial irregularities” and said it “reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action.” The probe included questions about Zilingo’s accounting practices and payments to several service providers of more than $7 million that were signed by her without the knowledge of senior executives, according to people familiar with the matter.

In two interviews, before and after her dismissal, Bose denied wrongdoing and provided detailed responses to key points of the investigation. She said that, in the end, the company fired her for a lack of cooperation in the investigation rather than for actual financial improprieties. She’s determined to protect her reputation.

“There is not a single payment made by Zilingo that did not have proper documents or either the finance, tech or operations teams were not aware of,” said Bose, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who had been CEO of Zilingo since its founding. “I feel like my baby has been taken away from me without giving me a proper explanation or a chance to fight for her back. I’m grieving and fighting for myself simultaneously.”

Once a shining example of the potential for tech startups in Southeast Asia, Zilingo ran into trouble after internal whistleblowers voiced complaints this year that triggered conflicts between Bose and her longtime backers. The board suspended her on March 31 and hired investigative firm Kroll Inc. to examine the complaints. Now Zilingo’s very survival is in question. 

Bose co-founded Zilingo