Byju Raveendran, the founder of Byju’s, allegedly tried to persuade a Nebraska businessman to leave the United States to avoid testifying in federal court about questionable activities he witnessed while working with Raveendran, according to a Bloomberg report.

William R. Hailer, the businessman in question, told the court that Raveendran sent him a plane ticket to Dubai just two days before his testimony about Raveendran’s attempts to regain control of parts of the Byju’s educational empire which had been taken over by a court. -appointed administrator. A copy of the nearly $10,700 ticket was presented to the court, the report states.

Hailer also claimed that Raveendran reiterated a job offer with a salary of $500,000 if he immediately went to Dubai and started working. At a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, Hailer told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John T Dorsey that Raveendran “encouraged me not to testify” and “said the pay would start on day one.”

The case centers on Raveendran’s efforts to regain control of Byju’s international operations, including Epic!, an American educational software company. These operations are currently placed under the control of a judicial agent. Hailer testified that Raveendran attempted to buy out $1.2 billion in debt owed to U.S. creditors in exchange for equity in Epic!, but the plan ultimately failed.

Judge Dorsey suggested that Hailer’s allegations could warrant a referral to federal prosecutors for a possible investigation into criminal activity.

The bankruptcy case of a Byju unit in the United States is also linked to lenders seeking to recover $533 million in loan proceeds. That missing money is at the center of a dispute between lenders owed $1.2 billion and Byju Raveendran’s startup, officially named Think & Learn Pvt.

The missing funds belong to a bankrupt shell company, Byju’s Alpha Inc., affiliated with Think & Learn. Byju’s Alpha was seized by lenders after he defaulted on his loan. Since then, lenders have tried to force Think & Learn to repay the $1.2 billion debt only to discover that the missing $533 million they say should be used to settle the debt.