OCC Ex-Fintech Chief's Fake Resume, DUIs Raise Fresh Questions
Lack Of Transparency On Diligence Failures Calls OCC's Processes, Judgment Into Question
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OCC Ex-Fintech Chief's Fake Resume, DUIs Raise Fresh Questions; Lack Of Transparency On Diligence Failures Calls Agency's Judgment Into Question
This March, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced the formation of the Office of Financial Technology, which incorporated the existing Office of Innovation and sought to expand the agency’s “expertise and ability to adapt to the rapid pace of technological changes in the banking industry.”
At the same time, the OCC announced who would head this new office as deputy comptroller and the agency’s first Chief Financial Technology Officer — an industry vet with “nearly 30 years of experience serving in a variety of roles across the financial sector” by the name of Prashant Bhardwaj. His new position came with a total annual salary of $303,400 and a one-off recruitment bonus.
But just as quickly as he was appointed, Bhardwaj seemingly vanished, with no explanation from the OCC as to why.
Bhardwaj’s selection was announced on March 17th. He officially started his role on April 9th. But sometime between July 5th and August 1st, Bhardwaj’s information was scrubbed from the OCC’s website, and Miriam Bazan was named as the Acting Chief Innovation Officer to head the office.
Bhardwaj’s mysterious disappearance from the OCC was first reported by Fintech Business Weekly in early September, including a possible reason why: his resumé included an MBA from an unaccredited diploma mill in Belgium.
At the time, the OCC declined to answer questions or provide a reason for Bhardwaj’s departure, though a background source close to the matter claimed it wasn’t related to the dodgy degree and that Bhardwaj simply “wasn’t a good fit.”
Bhardwaj’s Work History Included Easily Disprovable Claims — Including Working at “Citi Bank” At 13 Years Old
Now, new documents obtained by Fintech Business Weekly provide additional context on why Bhardwaj vanished from the OCC — and raise new questions about the OCC’s processes that led to his hiring and his dismissal (The Information first reported on this earlier today here.)
The employment history Bhardwaj provided to the OCC included numerous, easily discoverable falsehoods.
Bhardwaj claimed to be employed by Accenture as a managing director at the time he was applying to the OCC.
But, although Bhardwaj did briefly work at Accenture, from August 2018 to June 2019, it was in a significantly more junior role, as a senior manager, not a managing director. Bhardwaj was not employed at Accenture at the time he submitted his work history to the OCC.
Prior to Accenture, Bhardwaj lists a senior vice president role at a firm called Das Gemacht, where he claimed to manage 3,000 global team members and grow the business to some $386 million in revenue.
Das Gemacht’s company LinkedIn page claims the firm employees 780,000 associates world wide and works with 137 of the Fortune 500.
Yet, the company’s website is a placeholder page, which appears to have been in place since at least 2021. Despite claiming 780,000 employees, just seven users on LinkedIn list the company as their employer. And in a legal case the company was involved with, it listed the company’s principal place of business as Bhardwaj’s home address at the time.
An archived version of the company’s website does list Bhardwaj — under the alias Prashant Kumar — as part of the company’s management team. The actual size of the company and the scope of services it provided are unclear, though the company did file at least nine petitions for new or continued H1-B visas from 2014 to 2018.
Perhaps the most fantastical and easily disproved are two senior level roles Bhardwaj claimed to have held at large, publicly traded (and OCC-regulated) Ohio banks: Huntington and Fifth Third.
Bhardwaj claimed to be the Chief Information Officer and Digital Transformation Officer at Huntington Bank from March 2010 to July 2015. In that role, he said he managed a $250 million IT budget and a team of over 500 global employees.
Only, during the time Bhardwaj said he was the CIO at Huntington, other people held that role, according to proxy filings and LinkedIn data.
Huntington’s proxy filings in 2010, 2011, and 2012 list Zahid Afzal as the bank’s chief information officer — a role he had held since July 2007. Huntington’s proxy filings for 2013, 2014, and 2015 do not list a CIO, though the LinkedIn profile of the company’s current CIO suggests he’s held that role since 2014.
From January 2006 to March 2010, Bhardwaj claimed to hold the CIO role at Fifth Third Bank (which he curiously wrote as “5/3 Bank”.) In that role, he said he managed a $330 million IT budget and over 1,800 employees.
Yet Bhardwaj doesn’t appear in any filings or media related to the bank.
And asked in Bhardwaj worked at Fifth Third during the time in question, a bank spokesperson wrote via email, “I can confirm that Prashant Bhardwaj has NOT worked for Fifth Third.”
Prior to the roles at Huntington and Fifth Third, Bhardwaj claims to have worked in senior roles at Procter & Gamble and Deloitte.
In both roles, Bhardwaj makes dubious claims, including that he “Performed P&G-Gillette merger, largest in P&G’s history” and was “Responsible for building $500 Million in revenue managing all Midwest clients portfolio for Management and IT Advisory Service” during his approximately 15-month stint at Deloitte.
The earliest role listed on Bhardwaj’s work history was an approximately six year run at what he writes as “Citi Bank.”
Bhardwaj claims to have worked at Citi beginning in February 1994 — though, at the time, he would’ve been just 13 years old.
During his time at Citi, Bhardwaj says he “[i]nstalled the first ethernet CAT5 corporate networks” and was responsible for “the build and launch of the Citi Bank first website and online product catalogue [sic].”
Bhardwaj’s education history indicated he obtained an MBA at “International Management Institute Universiade de Brussels,” a controversial, unaccredited institution. After the dates when Bhardwaj claimed to attend, the institution was banned from purporting to offer Master of Business Administration degrees.
Asked to verify if Bhardwaj attended, a representative for the International Management Institute asked for an advanced payment of €350; it is unclear whether or not Bhardwaj obtained this unaccredited degree.
The University of Cincinnati was able to verify Bhardwaj was awarded a Master of Science in business administration/accounting in 2007.
Though not included on the materials Bhardwaj submitted to the OCC, his email signature used in communication with OCC staff and his LinkedIn profile claim that he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA.)
A search of CPA license records doesn’t return any current or expired license for Bhardwaj.
Bhardwaj’s Fake Resume Was Hardly Only Easily Discoverable Red Flag
Bhardwaj’s suspect employment history wasn’t the only red flag in his background.
A review of publicly accessible records also reveals Bhardwaj had a criminal history dating to 2011.
In May of that year, Bhardwaj was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while impaired and several traffic offenses.
Bhardwaj ultimately pled guilty to the driving while impaired charge, a first degree criminal misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a 180 day suspended jail sentence and had his driver’s license suspended for six months.
It wasn’t Bhardwaj’s only brush with the law.
About a year later, he again was charged with operating a vehicle while impaired — this time, in Franklin County, Ohio. Bhardwaj was also cited for crossing the center line and driving on the wrong side of the road.
He ultimately pled guilty to an amended charge of reckless operation, a first degree criminal misdemeanor.
Bhardwaj was sentenced to 180 day suspended sentence, a one year suspension of his driver’s license, and two years of probation.
Bhardwaj’s driving offenses aren’t the only challenge he faced around this time.
Court records for Bhardwaj’s divorce indicate his now ex-wife sought a restraining order against Bhardwaj, amid allegations of child and domestic abuse. Family court records in Ohio are sealed, so the full extent of the situation is unknown.
And just this July — after his appointment to head the OCC’s fintech office — Bhardwaj again was cited for operating a vehicle while impaired.
According to Dublin, Ohio, police department records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, around 1:50am on July 8th, 2023, Bhardwaj was driving his 2006 Porsche erratically at a high rate of speed.
Bhardwaj didn’t stop when the police officer activate his lights and siren, instead accelerating to over 80 MPH in a 40 MPH zone and running a red light, before veering off the roadway and hitting a stone wall.
The officer noted “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from Mr. Bhardwaj’s breath” and “that his eyes were glassy.”
Bhardwaj failed multiple field sobriety tests and refused to submit to a breathalyzer.
He was ultimately charged with operating a vehicle while impaired, speeding, crossing marked lanes, running a red light, failure to control a vehicle, and refusing a breathalyzer.
How Did Bhardwaj Come To Be OCC’s Chief Fintech Officer?
It remains unclear exactly how Bhardwaj came to be a deputy comptroller and the Chief Financial Technology Officer at the OCC.
Did he seek out and apply for the role? Or did someone at the OCC suggest or recruit him for the role?
The OCC didn’t respond to questions about how Bhardwaj became a candidate for the Chief Fintech Officer role.
When OCC Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Grovetta Gardineer sent an agency-wide email announcing Bharwadj’s appointment on March 30th, she described his qualifications in detail, saying:
“Prashant most recently served as the Managing Director for Banking Insurance & Financial Services
Technology Solutions with Accenture Inc., where he oversaw 22,000 global team members and guided clients through digital transformation in business technology and organizational change. Among other positions, he has also served as the Chief Information Officer at Fifth Third Bank and Huntington Bank, and Director of Information Technology at Citibank.”
Yet none of those details appear in the public announcement released the same day, which only says, “Mr. Bhardwaj joins the agency after nearly 30 years of experience serving in a variety of roles across the financial sector.”
What, if any, vetting and due diligence the OCC performed prior to offering Bhardwaj is unclear. It is unknown who met with or interviewed Bhardwaj, including whether or not Acting Comptroller Hsu met with or interviewed him.
The OCC did not respond to detailed questions, including about what its typical vetting process is for senior appointments, whether that process was followed in this case, and who met with or interviewed Bhardwaj prior to his appointment.
During his approximately four month tenure at the OCC, it is unknown what systems and information Bhardwaj may have had access to — including if he was privy to OCC employee information and/or banks’ confidential supervisory information.
The OCC did not respond to questions about what information Bhardwaj had access to, and if any data breach notifications or risk mitigation was necessary or took place.
Equally unclear is exactly when Bhardwaj separated from employment at the OCC and the circumstances surrounding that decision. Based on revisions to the OCC’s website, it appears Bhardwaj left sometime between July 5th and August 1st.
The OCC did not respond to questions about when and why Bhardwaj separated from employment.
OCC’s Diligence Failure And Lack Of Transparency Call Agency’s Credibility Into Question
That a candidate with such obvious red flags could be appointed to a senior regulatory position, with seemingly no due diligence, is alarming.
That the OCC attempted to quietly sweep the situation under the rug, without explaining how it happened, what risks may stem from it, and who at the agency was responsible calls the OCC’s credibility into question — and at the worst possible time.
Fellow bank regulator the FDIC is already engulfed in scandal, with recent reporting exposing a culture of bullying, sexual harassment, misogyny, and excessive drinking.
The just-appointed special committee to investigate those claims is co-chaired by two people: FDIC director Jonathan McKernan — and OCC Acting Comptroller Hsu.
A spokesperson for the OCC provided the following statement: “Please be advised that the OCC does not comment on personnel issues.” The spokesperson did not provide answers to a list of detailed questions about the situation.
An inquiry sent to what appears to be Mr. Bhardwaj’s LinkedIn profile did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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