Uber has accused one of its former employees of embezzling over Rs 1 crore by sneaking in fake driver profiles in the company’s list of drivers.
Context
As per the allegations the employee, Vinay Gera, tampered with the list of drivers associated with them in the company’s server and added 388 fake drivers, who were not associated with the company.
These profiles were linked to 18 bank accounts in which the money was transferred.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) found the allegations prima facie true, and at its recommendation, an FIR was registered against Gera at Sushant Lok Police Station.
Accordingly the FIR was registered against Gera at Sushant Lok Police Station due to which the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) found the allegations prima facie true.
What happened?
The issue came from a complaint filed by Prabhanjan Kumar, the authorized signatory of Uber India Systems Private Limited in April last year, Gera worked in the firm’s driver operations team from August to December 2021 at its Sector-44 office.
He worked for the vendor company TeamLease Services Limited India and quit Uber on December 19, 2021.
He was responsible for the driver arrears function.
“To avoid inconveniencing driver partners, a spreadsheet is automatically uploaded regularly.
A large number of transactions were processed by this automated spreadsheet and Viney Gera was responsible for updating the details of the driver-partner accounts to be paid.
Viney Gera created and placed several non-genuine driver partners accounts in the spreadsheet,” the app-based taxi firm said in its complaint.
When questioned, the firm found that of the 388 fake drivers’ profiles created by Gera, 191 profiles’ IP addresses matched the IP address of Gera’s office computer.
The numbers
191 cases out of 388 cases matched with the IP addresses used by Viney Gera to log into his work computer on the same day as the creation of the accounts.
“…In the above manner, a total amount of Rs 1,17,03,033 has been fraudulently paid to these fake driver partners into only 18 bank accounts,” read the complaint.
“In the above manner, a total amount of Rs 1,17,03,033 has been fraudulently paid to these fake driver partners into only 18 bank accounts,” read the complaint.
Charges
According to police, Gera has been booked under sections 408 (criminal breach of trust by a servant), 420 (cheating), 477-A (falsification of accounts), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
“We are investigating the matter and the accused will be arrested as soon as possible,” said Inspector Deepak Kumar, SHO, Sushant Lok Police Station.
