More than a year after Bankim Brahmbhatt’s telecom empire collapsed into bankruptcy, investigators are still trying to unravel an alleged receivables fraud that left one of America’s largest private-credit firms facing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
Funds managed by HPS Investment Partners, now part of BlackRock, lent approximately $430 million to companies linked to Brahmbhatt beginning in 2020, with the loans backed by accounts receivable purportedly owed by major telecommunications companies. HPS later alleged that documents used to verify many of those receivables were fabricated. Roughly half of the $430 million reportedly came from leverage from BNP Paribas, according to Reuters. Federal investigators subsequently began examining the alleged scheme.
Now, a September 16 bankruptcy filing shows that the investigation remains active. The Broadband Telecom/Carriox debtors are seeking documents and information from Raj Brahmbhatt, identified in the filing as a non-party, through Rule 2004 subpoenas. A new stipulation establishes confidentiality protections for potentially sensitive financial, banking, investment and commercial information produced through that discovery.
Up to $641 million written off before bankruptcy
The continuing discovery follows an extraordinary finding disclosed in a July 21 status report. Investigators said the companies’ books contained between $446 million and $641 million in purported bad-debt write-offs entered June 1, 2025, less than three months before the first bankruptcy filings. Despite repeated requests, investigators said the debtors produced no supporting documentation.
The debtors told the bankruptcy court that responses received directly from telecom companies supported their conclusion that the write-offs were “fictional or fraudulent in nature.”
Companies that responded almost uniformly said they had no transactions or no recent transactions with the debtors, their actual transactions were substantially smaller than the amounts appearing on the books, or they owed the debtors nothing. Several said the debtors actually owed them money.
Investigators contacted an extensive list of international telecom companies, including Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile Czech Republic, Telstra International, Orange, Bell Canada, China Mobile International, Reliance Jio, Telecom Italia Sparkle and NTT Communications. Inclusion on the list does not mean each company disputed a receivable; in many instances, the schedule merely records that investigators contacted the company.
One response is particularly relevant to the wireless infrastructure industry. Cellnex Telecom España told investigators it had no record of any transactions with the debtors.
The U.S. companies contacted included MCI International Services, Reliance Jio Infocomm USA, UNIFI Communications and IDT Domestic Telecom. Telecom Argentina USA told investigators it had conducted no transactions with the debtors since 2017, owed them no balance, and that the transaction amounts did not match the purported bad-debt write-offs.
Servers were altered or wiped after bankruptcy
Investigators have encountered another obstacle in reconstructing the companies’ financial history.
Forensic specialists at Kroll examined two servers and determined that both had been accessed and either changed or wiped clean by installing a superseding operating system after the bankruptcy petitions were filed. Six other servers contained no locally resident data from which investigators could generate findings.
The debtors said Bankai Infotech and Panamax had or may have had access to the interconnected servers, but the filing does not accuse either company of altering them. Investigators said determining who accessed or modified the servers remained an open question. They were also preparing to image another 15 servers and pursuing additional equipment at an Iron Mountain facility in New Jersey and with Cogent.
Brahmbhatt told investigators that he did not have the login credentials and said Bankai Infotech possessed them. The debtors said Bankai had refused to provide the information.
Brahmbhatt remains uncharged
Brahmbhatt has been reported to be in India, while federal authorities continue investigating the alleged fraud. As of September 2026, no publicly disclosed federal indictment or criminal complaint against him has surfaced.
That also explains why no extradition proceeding has been publicly disclosed. Extradition ordinarily requires an underlying criminal prosecution and formal U.S. request for surrender. If Brahmbhatt were ultimately charged while in India, U.S. authorities could seek his extradition under the U.S.-India extradition treaty, subject to India’s judicial and governmental review. At present, however, the public record shows an investigation – not a criminal case requiring his extradition.
Brahmbhatt has disputed the fraud allegations, which have not resulted in a criminal conviction.
The money trail remains unanswered
The seven jointly administered bankruptcies include Broadband Telecom, Bridgevoice, Carriox Telecap, Carriox Towercap and Carriox Capital II, among others.
More than a year into the bankruptcy, investigators are still trying to reconstruct the companies’ records while pursuing documents from counterparties and other individuals.
The central question has therefore moved beyond whether questionable receivables existed. If hundreds of millions of dollars were advanced against receivables that investigators say telecom counterparties largely cannot substantiate, where did the money go?
