Employee Accused of Fraudulently Adding Wife to Payroll, Causing ₹4.2 Crore Loss to Company

New Delhi, August 1, 2023: A private recruitment company, ManpowerGroup Service Private Limited, is at the center of a major fraud investigation after an employee allegedly added his unemployed wife to the company’s payroll for a period of 10 years. The scheme resulted in a staggering loss of ₹4.2 crore to the firm.

An FIR was lodged with the police last week following an internal inquiry conducted by the Delhi-based company that unveiled the alleged fraudulent activity.

The accused, identified as Radhaballav Nath, had been an employee of the firm since 2008 and held the position of manager (finance) at the time of the alleged crime. Among only three people with access to the payroll and reimbursement data, Nath is said to have devised a plan to generate income sources for his wife using the company’s resources.

Nath’s responsibilities included managing data related to new employees, employee attendance, and other relevant tasks. He would then forward this information to the payroll vendor to prepare the monthly pay register. However, the company alleges that Nath manipulated the data before sending it to the bank for payment processing.

According to the company’s complaint, Nath would insert an additional row in the approved Excel file, containing his wife’s name, Sasmita Raul alias Sasmita Nath, along with her salary amount. In addition, he tampered with his own salary figure. The company’s internal inquiry revealed that he used another employee’s computer system to manipulate the payroll file on the bank’s portal. After uploading the altered file, he would delete any trace of it from the system.

Confronted with the evidence, Nath confessed to the illegal transfer of ₹3.6 crore to his wife’s account and the inflation of his own salary, resulting in a substantial loss of ₹4.2 crore to the company.

The case remains under investigation as authorities seek to uncover the full extent of the fraud and its implications for the firm and its financial standing.