Who Is Amrita Ahuja? The Indian Origin CFO Of Block Named In Hindenburg's Latest Report

US short seller firm Hindenburg Research dropped another bombshell report yesterday, two months after rattling the Adani group. Its target this time is the American payment company Block Inc.

Hindenburg Research Accuses Ahuja

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The latest report against Jack Dorsey-led payments firm Block Inc. came out yesterday evening. And amidst the allegations, the firm's Indian-American CFO, Amrita Ahuja, has come under the scanner for allegedly dumping the firm's shares.

Hindenburg research has accused co-founders Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey along with executives, including Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja, and the lead manager for Cash App, Brian Grassadonia, of "dumping millions of dollars in stock."

¡°As Block¡¯s stock soared on the back of its facilitation of fraud, co-founders Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey collectively sold over $1 billion of stock during the pandemic. Other executives, including CFO Amrita Ahuja and the lead manager for Cash App Brian Grassadonia, also dumped millions of dollars in stock,¡± the report stated.

Who Is Amrita Ahuja?

Amrita Ahuja is the current Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Jack Dorsey's payment firm Block.

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She is also serving as a member of the board of directors at Discord and Airbnb. Ms. Ahuja has also been the CFO of Blizzard Entertainment, a game developer and publisher. In 2018, Ahuja was offered the position of CFO at Square Inc. The company will be renamed Block in 2021, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Amrita Ahuja's parents are Indian immigrants. She used to own a daycare centre in Cleveland, Ohio. The CFO said she joined Square because of its focus on empowering small businesses, the report added.

Earlier, Ms. Ahuja worked at Walt Disney Co. and Fox. She served as Senior Analyst, Strategic Planning at Disney and contributed to the launch of the streaming service Hulu at Fox. She also had a stint at Morgan Stanley as an investment banking analyst. Amrita Ahuja went to Duke University for a bachelor's in economics and completed an MBA at the Harvard Business School. She is an alumna of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Also Read: Hindenburg Trolled For Failing To Detect SVB Crisis

What Ahuja Has Said About The Claims

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"Our 2-year investigation has concluded that Block has systematically taken advantage of the demographics it claims to be helping," Hindenburg said about the report.

Besides, Hindenburg has also accused Block's management of distorting customer acquisition costs. The report quoted Ahuja, who said, "We saw as a customer acquisition cost across those areas of $5 in ¡®20 ¨C of less than $5 in 2020. And that¡¯s against the backdrop of our network growing by 50% year-over-year to 36 million monthly actives. That less than $5 is much smaller than what a traditional financial institution would pay."

Hindenburg countered these claims in its report.

"Ahuja explained that Cash App achieves this low cost due to network effects, because "a customer can bring a new customer into Cash App at little to no cost for us" by inviting them to engage in a Cash App transaction," the report said, adding, "We strongly suspect Block¡¯s reported cost of acquiring each new "transacting active" account is misleadingly low because single individuals may set up dozens or hundreds of accounts, including fake or scam accounts."

Also Read: Meet Nathan Anderson, The Man Behind Hindenburg Report

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