HR boss ‘pays’ salary to two ex-staffers for 7 years, gyps company of Rs 92 lakh

MUMBAI: A human resources manager of a textiles company was arrested on Friday for allegedly siphoning off Rs 92.3 lakh from the bank account of his employers. The accused, Nitin Borade (55), who had worked for this company for the last 27 years, committed the fraud between 2011 and 2018 by using salary accounts of two former employees of the company, said an official from MIDC police station.

Borade allegedly operated bank accounts of the two former staffers through Internet banking and the two were unaware of it, said the police.

Borade used his position in the human resource department to carry out the fraud, said an officer. The monthly salary payment procedure for the 60-odd employees was that the accounts manager would send an approved sheet to Borade who in turn approved and relayed it to the bank for payment. “It is here that he used to attach a list of the two former employees and instruct the bank to pay them, showing them as current employees,” said a police officer.

Once the money was credited to the accounts of these two, Borade allegedly transferred the sums through Internet banking to two bank accounts he had opened in the name of dummy trusts. “He then used the cheques of these trust accounts and accessed the funds for himself,” said the officer. “Borade had procured the login and password to operate the bank accounts of the two employees through Internet banking, said another officer.

Over the seven years that the fraud took place, Boradeused at least 67 bearer cheques to withdraw the money from the accounts of the two dummy trusts, said the police. The fraud came to light only recently when an employee from the accounts section got suspicious on finding “additional” salaries paid by the company’s bank.

“This happened when employees’ salary for November 2018 were being paid that they stumbled upon two extra payments from the bank,” said the officer.

A complaint lodged by the textiles firm states that “Borade was caught red-handed after an accounts department staffer went through details of the bank account through which the salaries had been paid,”

Borade claimed that three accounts employees had connived with him. The police said that the employees were questioned, but they claimed they were totally unaware of this.