Indian-Origin CEO Accused of $500-Million Fraud Against BlackRock
New Delhi: Global investment firm BlackRock‘s private-credit investing division and a number of significant lenders are currently frantically trying to recover over $500 million lost in a loan fraud purportedly masterminded by Indian-origin telecom executive Bankim Brahmbhatt, in what is being called a “breathtaking” act of financial fraud.
Lenders, including BlackRock’s HPS Investment Partners, have accused Brahmbhatt, the owner of telecom services companies Broadband Telecom and Bridgevoice, of fabricating invoices and accounts receivable that were pledged as collateral for large loans, according to an exclusive Wall Street Journal report. The lawsuit, which was filed in August in the US, claims that Brahmbhatt’s network of businesses moved money offshore to Mauritius and India while creating the appearance of financial stability on paper.
The “Breathtaking” Scam
According to the WSJ, the lenders’ complaint asserts that Brahmbhatt’s businesses owe over $500 million.
According to the study, HPS’s loans to Brahmbhatt’s companies were financed in part by the French multinational bank BNP Paribas. One of the biggest lenders in Europe, the French bank, has refrained from making any public remarks regarding the matter.
BlackRock, which acquired HPS Investment Partners earlier this year as part of its push into private-credit markets, is at a vulnerable moment due to the fraud. According to the Wall Street Journal, HPS started making loans to companies connected to Brahmbhatt as early as September 2020. By August 2024, the total investment had increased from $385 million in 2021 to over $430 million.
Nearly half of the loan to Carriox Capital and its affiliates—companies in Brahmbhatt’s telecom network—was financed by BNP Paribas, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
According to the WSJ, HPS recruited Deloitte to confirm Carriox’s assets through sporadic client checks when the loans were first started. Later, the accounting firm CBIZ was brought in for yearly audits. Neither company has made any public remarks.
The Find
An HPS employee discovered anomalies in client email addresses used to validate invoices in July 2025, according to the WSJ story. According to the report, a number of these addresses originated from phoney domains that imitated legitimate telecom organisations, and additional research showed that some purported client correspondence had been faked.
According to reports, Brahmbhatt disregarded the concerns raised by HPS officials and then stopped returning calls.
When an HPS employee later went to Brahmbhatt’s firms’ Garden City, New York headquarters, she discovered the buildings were locked and unoccupied. According to the Wall Street Journal, the office was still empty on Wednesday morning. Tenants in the area confirmed that no employees had been seen coming or going in recent weeks.
Reporters observed two BMWs, a Porsche, a Tesla, and an Audi parked in the driveway at Brahmbhatt’s listed Garden City home, along with an unopened parcel gathering dust near the front door.
The Lawsuit’s Findings
Following the discovery of the anomalies, HPS engaged CBIZ and renowned US law firm Quinn Emanuel to carry out an investigation. The Wall Street Journal reports that their research revealed that some contracts from 2018 were fabricated and that every customer email that Brahmbhatt’s companies had sent to confirm bills during the previous two years was false.
The Belgian telecom provider BICS was one prominent case mentioned in the report. A BICS security employee informed Quinn Emanuel in writing in July that the company had nothing to do with the emails shared by Brahmbhatt’s company, referring to it as “a confirmed fraud attempt.”
“Brahmbhatt created an elaborate balance sheet of assets that existed only on paper,” according to the lenders’ lawsuit, which also claimed that he had moved assets to offshore accounts in Mauritius and India.
