Mumbai: Amboli police, on Saturday, booked three employees of an advertising and talent hunt marketing media firm for allegedly embezzling Rs 1.41 crore by generating fake project bills and diverting company funds, including by forging celebrity signatures to clear bills.The accused allegedly siphoned money by forging fake signatures of actor Suniel Shetty‘s daughter Athiya and her husband, cricketer KL Rahul, to clear the bills, but they were never paid to them after they acted in the ad project. The accused also allegedly forged the signature actor Arshad Warsi and siphoned money from the company. Later, the company learned that there was no such project that was signed by the actor.TOI is in possession of the FIR that has been filed against the accused Rishabh Surekha, an employee of the firm hired as senior client servicing (Influencer Marketing), Yash Nagarkoti, and Ashay Shastri. Police are yet to make arrest. “The team will collect evidence before taking action,” said a Amboli police officer.The complaint was filed by Jeni Anthony (28), an employee of the company that has its head office in Haryana and a Mumbai office in Andheri West. The company operated in the advertising and marketing sector.Surekha joined the company in July 2023 as Senior Manager – Client Servicing (Influencer Marketing) and was responsible for branding, coordinating with influencers, and overseeing project execution. He was also authorised to communicate project details to the finance department and the CEO.After joining, Surekha allegedly obtained an interest-free loan of Rs 15 lakh from the company for his mother’s medical treatment. In August 2024, he secured an advertising project for Havells, featuring actress Dia Mirza, and informed the company that Rs 31 lakh was required for the production house, Hooray Movies. However, he allegedly assured Nagarkoti, CEO of Hooray Movies, that the project value was Rs 62 lakh, leading to a dispute and additional payments by the company.The FIR stated that the company later discovered that the trio allegedly conspired to create forged bills in the names of reputed companies, including Havells, Mahindra Lifespaces, Realme Number Series, and Birla Estates, and siphoned off over Rs 52 lakh into Surekha’s personal account.Further investigation revealed that Surekha allegedly misused the company’s official email ID to impersonate authorised representatives while dealing with talent management firms and clients. He was also accused of forging actress Athiya Shetty’s signature and creating a fake email ID in the name of actor Arshad Warsi to obtain funds through bogus projects.
