The founder of Indian tech giant Zoho Corporation, billionaire Sridhar Vembu, is embroiled in a high-stakes and acrimonious divorce battle with his US-based wife, Pramila Srinivasan, after three decades of marriage. A US court has reportedly ordered Vembu to post a staggering $1.7 billion bond, approximately INR 15,278 crore, though his legal team has termed it an appeal matter. The dispute centres on allegations of abandonment and the contentious ownership of Zoho, threatening an unprecedented division of assets under California's community property laws.
How a Three-Decade Marriage Reached Breaking Point
Sridhar Vembu moved to the United States in 1989 to pursue a PhD at Princeton University. He married Pramila Srinivasan, a Purdue University PhD in electrical engineering who was born and raised in the US, in 1993. The couple built their life in California, where Vembu, along with his two brothers and friend Tony Thomas, founded AdventNet in 1996, the company that later evolved into Zoho Corporation.
Their family life took a challenging turn when their son was diagnosed with autism. This led Pramila, who worked at a healthcare tech firm called MedicalMine, to establish The Brain Foundation dedicated to autism research. However, significant strains began to surface in their relationship around 2020. The breaking point came in November 2020 when Vembu reportedly sent a WhatsApp message to Pramila expressing his desire for a divorce. Formal papers were filed by August 2021. Notably, Vembu had already relocated from the US to his native village of Mathalamparai in Tamil Nadu in 2019, leaving his family behind.
Explosive Allegations and a Denial of Claims
In court filings, Pramila Srinivasan has levelled serious allegations against her estranged husband. She accuses him of abandoning her and their autistic son in the United States. Her most significant legal claim involves the alleged secret transfer of Zoho shares and intellectual property to his siblings without her consent. She contends this violates California's community property laws, which typically mandate a 50/50 split of marital assets upon divorce.
"My husband abandoned his son and me... made fictitious transfers of our most valuable community asset," she alleged in court documents.
Vembu has vehemently denied all accusations. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) in 2023, he called the claims "complete fiction" and stated, "They enjoy a richer life than I do." He asserted that he has provided full financial support, routing his US salary to her for the past three years, and that he gave her their house. He also mentioned that Zoho Corporation supports her autism research foundation. His lawyer, Christopher C. Melcher, has labelled the allegations "outrageously false."
The Core of the Billion-Dollar Legal Fight
The legal battle escalated in November 2024 when Pramila's ex parte application triggered the monumental $1.7 billion bond order. Vembu filed an appeal against this order in January 2025. At the heart of this divorce remains the dispute over the ownership and valuation of Zoho Corporation. If the court finds that the transfers were improper, California's community property framework could force a massive, unprecedented division of the tech giant's assets between Vembu and Srinivasan, making it one of the most significant divorce cases in the global tech industry.
The outcome of this case is being closely watched, as it not only involves the personal saga of one of India's most celebrated tech entrepreneurs but also sets a potential legal precedent for high-value, cross-border marital asset disputes involving privately held companies.
