US court orders Zoho chief to post USD 1.7 billion bond in divorce case
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New Delhi: A California court hearing the divorce proceedings of Zoho co-founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu has directed him to furnish a bond worth $1.7 billion, a move the court itself described as without precedent, according to a report by The News Minute.
The court has also placed multiple Zoho entities in the US, along with Vembu’s personal assets, under the supervision of a receiver to safeguard the interests of his former wife, Pramila Srinivasan. In addition, it has temporarily halted a major asset transfer.
As per the report, the court, citing its pre-trial observations, noted that Vembu had failed to fully disclose certain financial dealings and had acted in a manner it said showed disregard for legal requirements, the Wire reported.
Vembu, a billionaire technology entrepreneur, relocated from California in 2019, choosing to live and work from a village in Tamil Nadu while advocating a frugal lifestyle and rural development.
A Padma Shri awardee, he is widely known for speaking about duty, dharma and grassroots development, and is often projected in public discourse as a role model. He has also been associated with events organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The association became controversial in 2020 after a former employee criticised him on social media, accusing him of authoritarian views over his plan to attend an RSS event, which led to calls from some quarters to boycott Zoho.
In 2021, Vembu was inducted into the National Security Advisory Board.
Sridhar Vembu, along with two of his brothers, set up a software firm catering to network equipment companies in 1996 under the name AdventNet, which was later rebranded as Zoho Corporation in 2009.
As reported by The News Minute, Vembu returned to India towards the end of 2019 and initiated divorce proceedings in 2021, a case that subsequently drew significant public attention. The court order, issued in January 2025, followed an ex parte application filed by his wife, Pramila Srinivasan, in November 2024.
In her submissions to the court, Srinivasan alleged that Vembu had shifted ownership stakes and intellectual property linked to Zoho through intricate transactions without her knowledge or approval, contending that such actions violated California’s community property laws.
She sought judicial intervention to block what she described as a proposed transfer of a revenue-generating “community asset” in the United States to an external entity. The court stayed the transaction and rejected Vembu’s assertion that it was undertaken for tax efficiency, stating that the explanation lacked credibility and breached temporary restraining orders meant to safeguard marital assets.
According to The Free Press Journal, Srinivasan also alleged in her filings that Vembu effectively abandoned her and their adult son with special needs when he relocated permanently to India.
She further claimed that Vembu quietly transferred significant Zoho shareholdings to family members, including his sister Radha Vembu, who allegedly received 47.8 per cent, and his brother Sekar Vembu, who was said to have received 35.2 per cent, while he retained only a reported 5 per cent stake in the parent company, ZCPL, based in Chennai.
Srinivasan also stated that she had financially supported Vembu during Zoho’s formative years.