Indian-Origin CEO Orchestrates $500 Million Fraud Against BlackRock: Inside the "Breathtaking" Financial Scheme

Bankim Brahmbhatt is an Indian-origin CEO implicated in a massive $500 million fraud case.

New Delhi:

Global investment giant BlackRock's private-credit division and several major lenders are urgently working to recover over $500 million lost in what has been described as a "breathtaking" financial fraud. The scheme was allegedly orchestrated by Indian-origin telecom executive Bankim Brahmbhatt.

The Wall Street Journal's exclusive report reveals that the lenders, including BlackRock's HPS Investment Partners, have filed a lawsuit against Brahmbhatt, who owns telecom-services companies Broadband Telecom and Bridgevoice. The legal action, initiated in August in the United States, accuses Brahmbhatt of creating fictitious invoices and accounts receivable that were used as collateral to secure enormous loans. According to the suit, Brahmbhatt's business network crafted a facade of financial stability while secretly transferring funds offshore to India and Mauritius.

The lenders' lawsuit states that Brahmbhatt's companies owe in excess of $500 million, according to the WSJ report.

French multinational bank BNP Paribas reportedly helped finance the loans extended by HPS to Brahmbhatt's entities. The European banking giant has not issued any public statement regarding the case.

This fraud emerges at a particularly delicate moment for BlackRock, which acquired HPS Investment Partners earlier this year as part of its strategic expansion into private-credit markets. The Wall Street Journal noted that HPS began its lending relationship with Brahmbhatt-linked companies in September 2020, subsequently increasing the total investment from $385 million in 2021 to approximately $430 million by August 2024.

Sources familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal that BNP Paribas financed nearly half of the total amount loaned to Carriox Capital and its affiliated companies within Brahmbhatt's telecom network.

When the loans were first established, HPS engaged Deloitte to verify Carriox's assets through random customer verifications. Later, accounting firm CBIZ was brought in to conduct annual audits, as reported by the WSJ. Neither organization has made any public comments about the situation.

The fraud came to light in July 2025 when an HPS employee detected irregularities in customer email addresses used for invoice verification. The report indicated that many of these addresses originated from fraudulent domains that mimicked legitimate telecom companies. Further investigation revealed that some client correspondence had been completely fabricated.

When confronted by HPS officials, Brahmbhatt reportedly dismissed their concerns before ceasing all communication.

An HPS representative who subsequently visited the Garden City, New York offices of Brahmbhatt's companies discovered the premises locked and abandoned. The Wall Street Journal reported that as of Wednesday morning, the office remained vacant, with neighboring tenants confirming that no personnel had been seen entering or exiting the premises for several weeks.

At Brahmbhatt's registered residence in Garden City, journalists observed two BMWs, a Porsche, a Tesla, and an Audi in the driveway, alongside an unopened package gathering dust near the front entrance.

Following the discovery of irregularities, HPS retained Quinn Emanuel, a prestigious US law firm, and CBIZ to conduct a comprehensive review. According to the Wall Street Journal, their investigation determined that every customer email provided by Brahmbhatt's companies to verify invoices over the past two years was fraudulent, and that certain contracts dating back to 2018 had been forged.

A notable example highlighted in the report involved BICS, a Belgian telecom company. In July, a BICS security professional confirmed in writing to Quinn Emanuel that the company had no association with the emails shared by Brahmbhatt's firm, explicitly calling it "a confirmed fraud attempt."

The lenders' complaint asserted that "Brahmbhatt created an elaborate balance sheet of assets that existed only on paper," and claimed he had transferred assets to offshore accounts in India and Mauritius.