Paytm staff held for 'blackmailing' CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma for Rs 200 mn

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is facing a new data challenge — some people have threatened to leak his personal data, compromising the reputation of his company One97 Communications.

Three of the mobile wallet’s employees, including Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sharma’s secretary, were arrested on Monday by the Noida police for allegedly trying to extort Rs 200 million by threatening to leak his personal data. Sources said the alleged blackmailers threatened to ruin Sharma’s public image.

Sharma’s personal secretary (whose name was not revealed by the police), her husband and property dealer Rupak Jain, and Devendra Kumar, a manager in Paytm’s administration department, have been arrested. A fourth person based out of Kolkata, whose name was also not revealed, is absconding, police said.

This is a critical time for Paytm, which is still getting money from the last round of funding of about $340 million from Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway.

A leak of Sharma’s personal data leading to a scandal would have cast its shadow on this deal, as well as embarrassed major investors such as Alibaba and SoftBank.

Police said they were unsure what the alleged blackmailers were threatening to leak — Sharma’s personal data or something about his company, which has the data of 350 million users.

“The owner of Paytm lodged a complaint with the police that some employees, a woman and her aides, had stolen some data from the company and were blackmailing him. They were demanding Rs 200 million for not leaking it,” said Ajay Pal Sharma, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Paytm was in the news recently because of allegedly sharing user data with the government.

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