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Klarna’s board is considering firing a key ally of one of the company’s co-founders. It would be the second major shakeup in recent months at the Swedish fintech company, which is currently preparing for an IPO.

A decision on whether to fire Mikael Walther, a confidant of founding partner Victor Jacobsson, could be made at a board meeting scheduled for Wednesday, two of the people familiar with the decision said.

It’s still possible that board members will decide against removing Walther, but the potential vote highlights tensions at a critical juncture for the buy-now, pay-later pioneer, months after another high-profile board split and ahead of a long-awaited IPO that could value the company at $15 billion to $20 billion.

Klarna and Walther declined to comment.

The attempt to fire Walther after eight years followed a two-year investigation, people familiar with the matter said. One person familiar with the investigation downplayed its significance, saying it was used as a tool to put pressure on him.

However, the discussions surrounding Walther’s possible ouster are the latest indication of disagreements over the composition of the company’s board, following a dispute in February between board member Michael Moritz, a veteran of Sequoia Capital, and the venture capital firm’s board representative Matthew Miller.

That attempt to oust Moritz, an ally of Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, from his position as CEO failed, and Miller was replaced by another Sequoia partner, Andrew Reed.

The chaotic episode exposed deep rifts in the boardroom that emerged as Klarna prepared to move its headquarters from Sweden to the UK ahead of its expected IPO nearly 20 years after its founding.

At the heart of the conflict are tensions over the excessive influence of some shareholders on decision-making at Klarna due to historic special voting rights, as the Financial Times previously reported.

Jacobsson, who co-founded the company with Siemiatkowski but left over a decade ago, used his “right of first refusal” as co-founder to buy up Klarna shares through special purpose vehicles and charged outside investors fees for purchasing the shares.

Part of the investigation was Walther’s use of special purpose vehicles to build up a stake in the company, people familiar with the matter said.

The use of SPVs was controversial among some Klarna directors due to their perceived lack of transparency.

However, a person familiar with the arrangement had previously told the FT that these were “standard onshore entities” and that “these entities are very clear and transparent to investors and others who need to know”.

Siemiatkowski has already strengthened his position at Klarna through an SPV.

A person familiar with the dispute said that using SPVs as justification for trying to remove Walther from the board was an “excuse” and that “the key question now is whether Klarna should introduce golden shares ahead of the IPO,” a move that could give certain shareholders greater influence over the company once it goes public.

Klarna had been preparing for an IPO in recent months by working with investment banks and completed its move to the UK in May.

The company, which announced its half-year results on Tuesday, was able to reduce its losses and touted the benefits of artificial intelligence for its business.

Siemiatkowski told the FT after the results were announced that he was “very pleased that the company has taken some of the decisive steps to prepare for an IPO” and that only “macro-political conditions” such as the state of the markets could prevent the IPO.

“At the moment, I don’t see anything related to Klarna that would impact our plan to become a publicly traded company,” he said.