Queens Man Pleads Guilty To Defrauding Former Employer Of $4.4 Million In Fake Invoice Scheme

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that BHASKARRAY BAROT pled guilty today to wire fraud in connection with engaging in a years-long scheme to defraud his former employer out of approximately $4.4 million.  BAROT pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn and is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter on September 7, 2023. 

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “For years, Barot created fraudulent invoices and processed them for payment at the Manhattan-based company where he used to work as a procurement manager.  Barot designed the invoices to closely resemble the invoices that the company received from real vendors and other entities owed payment from the company.  But the fraudulent invoices differed in a crucial way: they directed payment into Barot’s pocket.  Today’s guilty plea emphasizes that this Office will seek justice for companies that fall victim to corporate theft.”

According to court filings and statements made in court proceedings:

From at least in or about July 2018, up to and including at least August 2022, BAROT engaged in a scheme to defraud his former employer (the “Company”) of approximately $4.4 million through fake invoices designed to resemble those received from legitimate vendors of the Company.  BAROT used his position as a procurement manager at the Company to process the fraudulent invoices for payment.  When doing so, he often affixed the fake invoices to email messages that he, in some cases, sent in the names of employees of the Company’s real vendors so that it would appear as though the real vendors were seeking payment on the fake invoices.   

The fake invoices, however, stated that payment should be made to entities with names that often differed slightly from those of the real vendor companies.  BAROT then incorporated companies and opened bank accounts in the names of some of the entities listed for payment on the fake invoices so that he could collect the payments that the Company made on the fake invoices.

BAROT repeated these fraudulent tactics with more than a dozen fictitious entities and caused payment from the Company on approximately 40 fake invoices, totaling approximately $4.4 million.

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BAROT, 32, of Queens, New York, pled guilty to wire fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey W. Coyle is in charge of the prosecution.