BharatPe fraud: EOW finds fake invoices generated by Ashneer Grover family

Preliminary investigations by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) find consultancy firms credited Rs 7.6 crore by BharatPe share addresses of Ashneer Grover's family members

The Economic Offences Wing's preliminary investigation into BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover's family found fake invoices and fund siphoning through the company. The investigation alleges that invoices from five companies supposedly providing recruitment services were backdated. Moreover, they were with associated bank accounts created after the invoicing dates, according to a report by Mint.

For instance, an invoice for Rs 39.9 lakh raised on 7th August 2019 was associated with a bank account created on 22nd August 2019. The report suggests these invoices were likely falsified later to facilitate fund diversion and to siphon money from BharatPe.

There were eight human resources (HR) firms hired by BharatPe as consultants. These included Vardhaman Marketing, Impulse Marketing, Vista Services, Evolve Bizserve, Team Source, Team Works, True Work Co, and Vikash Enterprises. According to a report by Mint, which had access to the status report submitted to the Delhi high court on the matter, EOW stated that all these firms' registered addresses allegedly belonged to family members or relatives of Grover's wife Madhuri Jain, who was also the head of controls at BharatPe. Out of the eight, the first five had bank account numbers that were not created on the dates stated on invoices. Approximately Rs 7.60 crore was reportedly credited to these eight firms.

The findings have been submitted as a status report to the Delhi High Court, where the case is presumably under examination. According to a report by MoneyControl, the status report read, "These invoices were provided by the vendors as well as complainant company to the investigating agency, which established that these fake invoices were created at a later stage after the opening of bank accounts of these firms. These firms were established and their bank accounts were opened only for the purpose of siphoning of funds and for causing wrongful gain to the alleged persons."

The EOW registered a first information report (FIR) against Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, and family members, including Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain, and Shwetank Jain, in June of this year. This was after the Delhi High Court had refused to open an investigation following a complaint being lodged by BharatPe against Grover and his wife in an Rs 81 crore fraud, according to a report by Bar and Bench.

According to another report by Mint, BharatPe has also filed a civil suit with the Delhi High Court for the recovery of more than Rs 88.67 crore in damages from Grover and family.

The FIR that was registered by EOW involved eight criminal offences, including 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or by banker, merchant, or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 120B (criminal conspiracy), among others.