{"meta":{"database":"Global Social Engineering Impact Database","license":"CC BY 4.0 — attribute to Netarx Social Engineering Incident Database","url":"https://global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app/incidents/2025-fabricated-telecom-invoices-deceive-blackrock-s-hps-unit-into-a-400m-cre"},"incident":{"slug":"2025-fabricated-telecom-invoices-deceive-blackrock-s-hps-unit-into-a-400m-cre","title":"Fabricated telecom invoices deceive BlackRock's HPS unit into a $400M+ credit facility","date":"2025-07","date_precision":"month","year":2025,"victim_org":"HPS Investment Partners (BlackRock)","sector":"Financial Services","country":"United States","primary_vector":"Vendor / Supply Chain Impersonation","secondary_vectors":["Business Email Compromise"],"ai_involvement":"No AI reported","ai_notes":"","outcomes":["Wire Fraud / Financial Loss"],"loss_usd":400000000,"loss_kind":"direct_loss","loss_note":"USD. HPS extended more than $400 million against the disputed receivables, part of roughly $430 million of loans, with BNP Paribas providing leverage on about half. HPS is pursuing recovery through Delaware court action and related bankruptcy proceedings, so the final unrecovered amount has not been published.","records_affected":null,"threat_actor":"Bankim Brahmbhatt and affiliated telecom entities (alleged)","summary":"HPS Investment Partners, the private credit unit BlackRock acquired in July 2025, discovered that receivables pledged as collateral by telecom entrepreneur Bankim Brahmbhatt's companies were fabricated. HPS had lent against purported invoices from major telecom carriers since 2020 and described the scheme in Delaware court filings as an extraordinarily brazen and widespread fraud. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York opened an investigation, reported publicly in November 2025.","how_it_worked":"The borrower supplied invoices purporting to come from large international telecom carriers as collateral for a revolving credit facility, backed by supporting correspondence from email domains crafted to look like those carriers. Credit analysts and underwriters accepted the documents as third-party confirmation of real receivables, and the pattern held for roughly five years because each new drawdown was validated against the same fabricated paper trail. The deception unravelled only when an HPS analyst compared the email domains on the invoices against the real carriers' domains and found mismatches, then found the same discrepancy repeatedly across the portfolio.","lessons":"Out-of-band verification of receivables directly with the named obligor, using contact details sourced independently rather than from the borrower's own documents, would have exposed the fabricated counterparties years earlier.","confidence":"Reported","sources":[{"title":"US Probes Telecom Firms After BlackRock's HPS Uncovers Alleged $400M Fraud","url":"https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-11-17/us-probes-telecom-firms-after-blackrocks-hps-uncovers-alleged-400m-fraud-financial-times-reports","publisher":"U.S. News / Reuters"},{"title":"How Fake Invoices Duped BlackRock Unit Into a $400 Million Loan (WSJ)","url":"https://www.securitiesdocket.com/2026/02/11/how-fake-invoices-duped-blackrock-unit-into-a-400-million-loan-wsj/","publisher":"Securities Docket / The Wall Street Journal"},{"title":"BlackRock Unit Flags Suspected $400 Million Fraud, Triggering U.S. Probe of Telecom Firms","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-unit-flags-suspected-400-150656293.html","publisher":"Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg"}],"entry_type":"incident","url":"https://global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app/incidents/2025-fabricated-telecom-invoices-deceive-blackrock-s-hps-unit-into-a-400m-cre"}}