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Former Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose Spoke Out Publicly for the First Time After Her Sacking

2022-05-30 , 11:00 am

The 30-year-old former CEO continues to try to clear her name with the company’s stakeholders, to whom she’s not allowed to speak to.

But before we jump into what she said, watch this video to find out what Zilingo is, and why Ms Ankiti Bose got fired:

Now that we have the context down, let’s jump straight into Ms Bose’s thoughts about getting fired from the company she founded.

Got Fired Through an Email, No Chance to See or Contest Report Used to Fire Her

In an interview with The Straits Times, Ms Bose talked about how she wanted to clear her name.

She revealed that she found out about her sacking through an email sent to her from the company, and that it came as a surprise.

Ms Bose has also yet to see the report from the investigations looking into claims of financial irregularities, and thus did not have a chance to contest it.

Yes, she was fired from her own company and can’t even fully know why.

Not Allowed to Speak with Shareholders

Ms Bose also shared that she isn’t allowed to speak with shareholders that she was “very, very close to” over the past two months.

Instead, all of her communication with the company and its board have been through legal representatives.

However, she has expressed that she is determined to speak to the shareholders, stakeholders and employees, to understand what happened and to explain herself to them.

She explains that she wants to think in a way that is “constructive and reconciliatory” between stakeholders, so that they can “do what’s good for the company and its hundreds of employees”.

This is why despite how she can just drop this company and move on to her next venture, she is choosing to stay and fight to find answers. As put aptly by Ms Bose herself, “I just turned 30, this is my life, this is my reputation. This is everything to me.”

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Hate Messages, Violent Threats, and Hacking of Personal Documents

In a recent Instagram post, Ms Bose shared that she has been dealing with lots of hate messages and violent threats.

Additionally, her personal photos and documents have been hacked into, and circulated on the Internet with malicious edits.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ankiti Bose (@ankitibose)

Speaking to The Straits Times, she said that she barely left her apartment during this entire saga, other than to take the occasional walk. Her communication with her lawyers has mostly been through video-conferencing or emails.

With all of the stress that she has endured, Ms Bose has barely slept in the last two months.

Financial Irregularities Explained

When asked about the alleged financial irregularities from Zilingo, Ms Bose explained that due to the pandemic, the company decided to restructure some of its teams.

Additionally, she was aware that their financial reports were delayed, with the last filed financial statements being from 2019.

However, Zilingo had a finance team of over 20 employees, together with a Big Four firm auditor and adviser. When Ms Bose was still CEO, the company was waiting for proper advice from them on how to proceed.

She added that she cannot touch the accounts, since Ms Bose isn’t a qualified chartered accountant.

Ms Bose also said that it is common for many start-ups to be late in filing their accounts, especially during the pandemic when everyone was struggling. But ït’s not an excuse”, and she acknowledged that it was nevertheless wrong.

Will Continue to Fight for Answers

Despite still retaining an 8% stake in the company, Ms Bose does not know the company’s future plans.

However, she will continue to fight for answers and see “what is the best thing that can be done for the company in this current situation”.

She ended off by saying that she will try to be positive, but will keep on trying to find out what truly happened and “try to help to steer the ship forward”.