In what is being described as a “breathtaking” act of financial fraud, global investment firm BlackRock’s private-credit investing arm and several major lenders are now scrambling to recover more than $500 million lost in a loan fraud allegedly orchestrated by Indian-origin telecom executive Bankim Brahmbhatt.
According to an exclusive report by the Wall Street Journal, the lenders, including BlackRock’s HPS Investment Partners, have accused Brahmbhatt, the owner of telecom-services firms Broadband Telecom and Bridgevoice, of fabricating invoices and accounts receivable that were pledged as collateral for massive loans. The suit, filed in August in the United States, alleges that Brahmbhatt’s network of companies built an illusion of financial health on paper while moving money offshore to India and Mauritius.
The “Breathtaking” Fraud
The lenders’ lawsuit claims Brahmbhatt’s companies owe more than $500 million, the WSJ reported.
The report claimed that French multinational bank BNP Paribas helped finance the loans made by HPS to Brahmbhatt’s entities. The French bank, one of Europe’s largest lenders, has declined to comment publicly on the case.
The fraud comes at a sensitive time for BlackRock, which acquired HPS Investment Partners earlier this year as part of its expansion into private-credit markets. The Wall Street Journal noted that HPS began lending to Brahmbhatt-linked firms as early as September 2020, later expanding the total investment from $385 million in 2021 to roughly $430 million by August 2024.
According to people familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal, BNP Paribas financed nearly half the amount loaned to Carriox Capital and its affiliates-companies within Brahmbhatt’s telecom web.
When the loans were initiated, Deloitte was hired by HPS to verify Carriox’s assets through random customer checks, and later, accounting firm CBIZ was brought in for annual audits, the WSJ reported. Neither firm has commented publicly.
The Discovery
According to the WSJ report, trouble surfaced in July 2025, when an HPS employee noticed irregularities in customer email addresses used to verify invoices. The report claimed that several of these addresses came from fake domains mimicking real telecom companies, and further investigation revealed that some correspondence supposedly from clients had been fabricated.
When questioned by HPS officials, Brahmbhatt reportedly dismissed the concerns and then stopped answering phone calls.
An HPS employee who later visited the Garden City, New York offices of Brahmbhatt’s companies found the premises locked and deserted. The Wall Street Journal reported that on Wednesday morning the office remained vacant, with nearby tenants confirming that no staff had been seen entering or leaving in recent weeks.
At Brahmbhatt’s listed residence in Garden City, reporters noted two BMWs, a Porsche, a Tesla and an Audi parked in the driveway, alongside an unopened package collecting dust by the front door.
What The Lawsuit Revealed
After the irregularities were flagged, HPS hired Quinn Emanuel, a prominent US law firm, and CBIZ to conduct a review. According to the Wall Street Journal, their investigation found that every customer email provided by Brahmbhatt’s firms to verify invoices over the past two years was fraudulent, and that some contracts dating back to 2018 were forged.
A notable example cited by the report involved BICS, a Belgian telecom company. In July, a BICS security staffer confirmed in writing to Quinn Emanuel that the company had no connection to the emails shared by Brahmbhatt’s firm, calling it “a confirmed fraud attempt.”
The lenders’ complaint stated that “Brahmbhatt created an elaborate balance sheet of assets that existed only on paper,” and alleged that he had transferred assets to offshore accounts in India and Mauritius.