Indian-Origin Executive Accused of “Breathtaking” $500 Million Fraud Targeting BlackRock Unit
NEW YORK / NEW DELHI — An Indian-origin telecom entrepreneur, Bankim Brahmbhatt, is at the center of what lenders have called a “breathtaking” $500 million loan fraud that has ensnared some of Wall Street’s biggest players including a private credit arm of BlackRock and BNP Paribas, one of Europe’s largest banks, according to NDTV.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the lenders, led by HPS Investment Partners, now part of BlackRock, allege that Brahmbhatt’s network of telecom companies fabricated invoices and customer accounts that were used as collateral for hundreds of millions in loans. The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. court in August, accuses Brahmbhatt of creating an elaborate illusion of financial health while allegedly siphoning funds offshore to India and Mauritius.
HPS began lending to Brahmbhatt-linked firms such as Carriox Capital, Broadband Telecom, and Bridgevoice in 2020, eventually extending credit lines exceeding $430 million by 2024. Roughly half of that was reportedly financed by BNP Paribas.
The alleged deception unraveled this summer when HPS staff discovered irregularities in email addresses used to verify invoices, some tied to fake domains mimicking real telecom clients. Follow-up checks revealed that nearly all customer correspondence had been fabricated, including forged contracts dating back to 2018.
When confronted, Brahmbhatt allegedly brushed off the findings, then vanished. Investigators later found his Garden City, New York office abandoned, the locks changed, and neighboring tenants claiming the premises had been empty for weeks.
Subsequent inquiries by law firm Quinn Emanuel and auditor CBIZ confirmed that every customer contact supplied by Brahmbhatt’s firms was fraudulent. One supposed client, BICS of Belgium, told investigators it had “no relationship whatsoever” with the companies involved, calling the emails “a confirmed fraud attempt.”
The case comes at a sensitive time for BlackRock, which only this year acquired HPS to expand its private-credit portfolio. The lenders’ complaint accuses Brahmbhatt of “manufacturing assets that existed only on paper,” leaving them scrambling to recover more than half a billion dollars.
