Actor-turned-entrepreneur Parul Gulati exposes theft & breach of trust by assistant

Actor-turned-entrepreneur Parul Gulati has publicly shared that she was cheated by her executive assistant, who was recently terminated after allegedly being found guilty of theft and serious breaches of trust. Gulati, founder of the hair extension brand Nish Hair, posted a detailed note on LinkedIn recounting the incident.

According to her, the assistant had been with the company for nearly a year, managing her personal and professional communication, running errands, and handling key transactions. Over time, however, repeated instances of missing cash and stolen Nish Hair inventory raised suspicion.

“We’ve now terminated her employment due to multiple incidents of theft and serious breaches of trust,” Gulati wrote, noting that the assistant was found to have unauthorised possession of both cash and branded products. More alarmingly, she also allegedly shared Gulati’s credit card details with someone outside the company.

Here's the post:

On further investigation, Gulati said they discovered that this was not an isolated incident — the assistant had previously been involved in money-related misconduct at her former workplace as well. The situation, while distressing, served as a wake-up call. “This has been a difficult but important learning experience for me as a founder,” she noted. “Trust is essential, but so is due diligence.”

The post has sparked significant engagement on LinkedIn, with professionals across industries echoing her sentiments and sharing similar experiences. Many, like HR specialist Srishti Agrawal, lauded Gulati’s transparency, while others shared their own run-ins with employee misconduct, particularly at the executive assistant level.

From unauthorised use of company funds to credit card misuse and personal billing under company expenses, the pattern of betrayal appeared familiar to many entrepreneurs and professionals.

Some responses, however, raised critical questions around internal processes. One LinkedIn user pointed out that trusting an assistant with sensitive financial information like credit card details is risky and advised that such tasks be reserved for experienced finance staff or founders themselves, depending on the company’s size.