Crime
U.S. Firm Alleges Fraud by Noida Company
The Indian company hired inexperienced developers, forged their identities and charged more money for services.
The CEO of a U.S.-based software company has alleged fraud of almost Rs. 14 crore by the owner of a Noida-based firm, which was hired to build technology support and providing Indian engineers.
According to a PTI report, the Noida-based company’s owner has been accused of hiring inexperienced developers, forging their identities and experience, and even employing ghost employees. The company is also accused of charging heavily for the subpar services it offered.
Phill Alaph, Director and CEO of Vsolay Inc. based in San Francisco has lodged a complaint against Himanshu Khatri, owner of My Mind Infotech Pvt Ltd in Noida.
The report notes that the Indian company delivered “extremely low quality” services with its fraudulent schemes which caused revenue loss and customer dissatisfaction for Vsolay.
In his complaint, Alaph further says that Khatri talked about employing Indian software developers to build technology products for Vsolay Inc. Khatri told Alaph that he would monitor the hiring of individuals and after proper verification, he would hire them to work for Vsolay. Khatri also told Alaph that developers had to be paid on hourly basis.
“During the entire period of engagement, Khatri fraudulently misrepresented the true identities of the individuals as well as their experience and their compensation. He sent us forged CVs of the candidates after increasing their age and experience and in some cases after changing the names of the candidates and also sent us forged and photoshopped ID cards to substantiate the forged CVs,” Alaph said in his complaint, PTI reported.
Alaph said in his complaint that Khatri hired junior and inexperienced professionals and paid them low-salary while heavily charging his company.
“All this continued to happen from 2006 to 2015 when, at the end of the year 2015, I came to know that Khatri has been perpetrating a deep fraud beginning at the earliest part of the engagement,” he further said.
Khatri also misrepresented individuals and created ghost identities of people who were not employed by the firm. He also charged remunerations for people who were no longer associated with it, Alaph said in his complaint.
“In the most recent billing, which has run close to $40,000 per month, we now know that his total outlay to the team has been less than $8,000 per month,” Alaph said in his complaint, the news agency reported.
“The complaint has been on the quality of software. The complaint has been registered and an investigation launched. Our cyber wing is also on the job and gathering information. Further action will be taken depending on the nature of the information that we get,” Noida Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal Sharma told PTI.
An investigation has been initiated by the Noida police and no arrests have been made yet.