Lenders pursuing recovery of around $500 million linked to alleged fake invoice scheme
Accused telecom founder said to have used sham customers to secure loans
Funds reportedly moved offshore while business appeared healthy on paper
BlackRock’s private-credit arm and a group of global lenders have started working on a process to recover over $500 million lost in an alleged loan fraud scheme. They described it a “breathtaking” operation, which involved fabricated invoices and non-existent clients, according to The Wall Street Journal reports.
The group of lenders, which includes BlackRock’s HPS Investment Partners, have taken legal action in the US against Bankim Brahmbhatt, the Indian-origin entrepreneur behind telecom entities Broadband Telecom and Bridgevoice.
The court filings accused Brahmbhatt of engineering a complex scheme that propped up his businesses with fabricated receivables and sham customer accounts used as collateral to secure large loans, the report said. Investigators alleged that the companies appeared financially sound on paper, while funds were being quietly routed offshore to India and Mauritius.
The suit contends the firms collectively owe lenders more than $500 million, according to the WSJ report. It also revealed that French multinational bank BNP Paribas was involved in financing the loans made by HPS to Brahmbhatt’s entities.
The controversy came at a time when BlackRock acquired HPS Investment Partners as a part of its expansion into private credit markets. The report stated that HPS first began extending financing to companies tied to Brahmbhatt in September 2020, with its exposure rising from about $385 million in 2021 to nearly $430 million by mid-2024.
Sources told WSJ that BNP Paribas underwrote close to half of the funding provided to Carriox Capital and related entities, part of the network of telecom firms linked to Brahmbhatt. HPS recruited Deloitte to verify Carriox’s assets through random customer checks when the loans were initiated.
However, later, the case was transferred to the accounting firm CBIZ for annual audits, the report added.
The trouble came to notice in Junly 2025, when an HPS employee notices irregularities in customer email addresses used to verify invoices. It was found the some addresses came from fake domains, which portrayed themselves as real telecom companies. And further investigation revealed that something had been fabricated.
At Brahmbhatt’s registered home in Garden City, reporters observed luxury vehicles, including BMWs, a Tesla, an Audi, and a Porsche.
After spotting financial irregularities, HPS enlisted US law firm Quinn Emanuel and advisory firm CBIZ to probe the matter, and their review, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, concluded that every customer email used to validate invoices over the last two years was fabricated, with some contracts traced back to 2018 allegedly forged.
The investigation highlighted a case involving Belgian telecom operator BICS, whose security team confirmed in July that it had no link to the emails supplied by Brahmbhatt’s company, calling it a deliberate fraud attempt
