Mangaluru: In a major development, it is said that a death note has been recovered, where Cafe Coffee Day founder-chairman V G Siddhartha has poured out his heart and lamented his predicament.
As per media reports, a printed note addressed to Cafe Coffee Day Board of Directors and employees has been found.
According to News18, the letter speaks of his despair and anguish for “failing to create the right profitable business model” despite his “best efforts”.
The letter reads, “I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend.”
“I sincerely request each of you to be strong and to continue running these businesses with a new management,” the letter continues. It adds that “every financial transaction” is his responsibility.
In the letter, he also reportedly spoke about harassment from a former Income Tax DG that brings him to this difficult situation.
Calling the IT department DG’s stand as injustice meted out to the company, the note reads that he suffered lot of harassment at the hands of the former IT DG through the attachment of the company’s shares.
It is said that when the IT attached the shares, Siddhartha had requested the IT DG not to attach the shares from Mindtree (one of the companies in which Siddhartha had invested), but the IT DG refused to oblige. Siddhartha had reportedly offered CCD shares and urged them to let go of those of Mindtree, as he knew that these shares could help him come out of the tight financial situation. When the IT department went ahead and attached Mindtree’s shares, Siddhartha suffered huge losses and the company was pushed into a severe crisis.
“My team, auditors and senior management are totally unaware of all my transactions. The law should hold me and only me accountable, as I have withheld this information from everybody including my family. My intention was never to cheat or mislead anyone. I have failed as an entrepreneur. I hope someday you will forgive and understand me. This is my sincere submission,” the note reportedly reads.
He reportedly ends the note listing the liabilities and the assets and states that since the assets are higher than the liabilities, they can pay back all the investors.
