Zoho founder asked to deposit ₹15,000-crore divorce bond in US:Sridhar Vembu to end marriage with Pramila Srinivasan after three decades

A California court has reportedly directed Zoho founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu to deposit a bond of around ₹15,000 crore in an ongoing divorce case. The case is being described as one of India’s most expensive divorces. Sridhar Vembu married Pramila Srinivasan, an academic and business professional based in the US, in 1993. The couple has a 26-year-old son. How the divorce case began After completing his studies at IIT Madras, Vembu moved to the United States in 1989 and earned a PhD from Princeton University. In 1996, he founded AdventNet, which was later rebranded as Zoho in 2009. The couple lived in California for nearly three decades. In 2019, Vembu returned to India and began running Zoho from his ancestral village Mathalamparai in Tamil Nadu. He filed for divorce in 2021, leading to the current legal proceedings in the US.
What Are the Wife’s Allegations? In court, Pramila Srinivasan alleged that Sridhar Vembu abandoned her and their son. She also claimed that Vembu shifted Zoho’s shares and properties to India through complex transactions, without her knowledge or consent. According to her, a large portion of Zoho’s shares is now held by Vembu’s family members—his sister Radha Vembu holds about 47.8%, while his brother Sekar holds around 35.2%. She told the court that Vembu himself now owns only about 5% of the company, valued at roughly $225 million. Vembu’s Lawyer Says Order Will Be Challenged As the legal dispute intensified, Sridhar Vembu’s lawyer, Christopher C. Melcher, responded publicly on social media platform X, claiming that Pramila’s legal team had misrepresented facts before the court. Melcher said that Vembu had offered his wife 50% of the company’s shares, but she declined the offer. He described the $1.7 billion bond order as invalid and confirmed that it has been appealed. About Zoho Corporation Zoho Corporation was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu, his two brothers, and friend Tony Thomas, under the name AdventNet, focusing on network management software. The company was rebranded as Zoho Corporation in 2009. According to Forbes, Sridhar Vembu is currently ranked as India’s 47th richest person, with an estimated net worth of around $6 billion, or approximately ₹54,000 crore.