New Delhi: A California court, that was hearing the divorce petition of Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and chief scientist of software products company Zoho, has ordered him to post a bond of USD 1.7 billion, a step the court itself termed as unprecedented, The News Minute reported.The court also appointed a receiver over multiple Zoho entities in the US and Vembu’s personal assets, to protect his ex-wife Pramila Srinivasan’s rights.Further, the court has paused a significant asset-transfer transaction.According to the report, the court, referring to pre-trial findings, observed that the tech billionaire has not been transparent about certain financial transactions and acted “without regard for the law”.Vembu, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and business magnate, gave up life in California in 2019 to live a simple life and work from a small village in Tamil Nadu.A recipient of India’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, he is often found preaching the importance of duty and dharma, and his mission to develop rural India. He is often held up publicly as a role model. He is also known to have attended events organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which backs the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.Also read: Digital Sovereignty or Surrender? Modi Govt’s Zoho Shift is a Troubling Step BackwardsThis blew up in 2020, when an ex-employee called him “fascist” and a Nazi on Twitter (now X) due to his plans to attend one such RSS event. Several commentators had subsequently sought a boycott of his company.In 2021, Vembu was appointed to National Security Advisory Board.Zoho and the divorceIn 1996, Vembu, along with two of his brothers, founded a software development house for network equipment providers called AdventNet. This company was renamed Zoho Corporation in 2009.Zoho, which is described as a unicorn, focuses on helping digitise businesses by providing SaaS (software as a support) to their customer relationship management services.According to The News Minute, Sridhar moved to India in late 2019 and filed for divorce in 2021, which then became a highly-publicised case. The order, passed in January 2025, was in response to his wife Pramila Srinivasan’s ex-parte application filed in November 2024. In her court filings, Srinivasan claimed that he transferred Zoho ownership stakes and intellectual property holdings through complex transactions without her knowledge or consent, arguing this was improper under California’s community property laws. She wanted the court to prevent a “transaction” which she said would transfer a revenue-generating “community asset” in the US to a third-party. This transaction – which was to take place in three stages – was regarding the transfer of the business of US-based Zoho Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chennai-headquartered Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd (ZCPL) – the “community asset” – to an entity owned by Tony Thomas, Sridhar’s long-time associate.The court halted this asset transfer and the judges dismissed Vembu’s claims that the move was for tax optimisation, saying it is “not credible”. They noted that it breached temporary restraining orders designed to protect marital property.“The record in this case demonstrates that Petitioner has acted without regard for Respondent’s interests in community assets and without regard for the law,” the order read.More allegationsAccording to the Free Press Journal, in her court filings, Srinivasan had also reportedly alleged that Vembu abandoned her and their adult son with special needs when he moved back to India permanently. She further alleged Vembu surreptitiously transferred substantial Zoho shares to family members, including his sister Radha Vembu (47.8%) and brother Sekar Vembu (35.2%), leaving him with a claimed 5% holding in the parent ZCPL in Chennai.She reportedly claimed to have supported Vembu financially in Zoho’s early days. “I felt shocked to learn only after he filed for divorce that he claimed to own just 5 percent of the company he had spent our marriage building,” Srinivasan reportedly stated in court filings.