A top executive of Indian tech firm Byju's and an ally of the company's founder have been found in contempt of court. A federal judge in Delaware found that Byju's manager Vinay Raveendran and company associate Rajendran Vellapalam failed to answer questions about their role in the court-supervised theft of software, cash and other assets from Byju's US businesses. The judge imposed a fine of $25,000 per day for refusing to comply with a US court order.

The judge also found that Vellapalam’s tech business, Voiceit Information Technology, violated a court order by filing a lawsuit in India to take control of assets owned by Baiju’s education businesses in the US. Even if the action is in a foreign court, it is a violation of US law to try to seize their assets.

This is the third time a US judge has found that a close friend of the company’s founder, Baiju Raveendran, who owes more than $1.2 billion in debt, has violated a court order in a long-running dispute between the education technology firm and its lenders.

Raveendran's brother Riju Raveendran and hedge fund founder William C. Morton were able to avoid fines in part by appearing in court for refusing to answer questions about the $533 million loan.

A representative for Byju's did not return a request for comment on the part of the ruling involving Raveendran. Contempt motions are unusual in federal court because most defendants comply with the judge's orders to avoid daily fines. Such actions are unusual in U.S. bankruptcy court. "These are certainly rare circumstances," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon said in his ruling.