Ex-Gameskraft CFO cost company Rs 250 crore by diverting funds for trading: FIR

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have opened a case against the former Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Gameskraft Technologies for allegedly using company funds to invest in futures and options (F&O) trading and costing the company over Rs 250 crore. 

The suspect is Ramesh Prabhu, 47, a resident of Hebbal, who was with the company that offered online gaming services as CFO since 2018.

Gameskraft discontinued its operations after the Union Government recently passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025.

The Marathahalli police filed the FIR, seen by DH, on September 9 under BNS Sections 316(4) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), 335 (making a false document), 344 (falsification of accounts), and 336(2) (forgery), following a complaint by Gulshan Yadav the company’s assistant vice president.

Yadav, 43, told the police that Prabhu, in an e-mail on March 5, 2025, “voluntarily admitted” to misusing company funds for personal equity and derivatives trading (Equity F&O Trading) over the past three to four years.

“He further stated that the total loss from such Equity F&O Trading, per his estimate, exceeded Rs 250 crore. A reading of the e-mail also makes it clear that these activities were carried out without any disclosure or approval. He stated that he would take full responsibility for his conduct, including for breaching the trust reposed in him in his capacity as Group Chief Financial Officer. He claimed that none of the current or former employees of the Complainant Company were aware of his conduct,” Yadav was quoted as saying in the FIR.

Following the email, the firm conducted a comprehensive fact-finding review. The company records, per the FIR, showed that Prabhu had executed unauthorised financial transactions of Rs 231.39 crore from FY 2019-20 to FY 2024-25.

“It appears that of Rs 231.39 crore, Rs 211.53 crore was wrongly recorded as ‘investments' in the Complainant Company's books of accounts. These 'investments' have a carrying value of Rs 250.57 crores as of March 31, 2024. Finally, it was discovered that an additional amount of Rs 19.86 crore was expensed as ‘investments’ in FY 2024-25,” the FIR noted.

The company was then required to write off Rs 270.43 crore in its financial statement for the financial year 2024-25. It was also found that Prabhu carried out the transactions in an “unauthorised and unlisted manner” through an account with the RBL bank, closely controlled by him and “diverted the funds for his personal use”, the FIR said.

“To suppress evidence of his unauthorised conduct and thereby prevent timely detection of these unauthorised trades, the suspect created fake mutual fund statements to support his claim that he had made investments using the Complainant Company's funds.”

Cops to issue a look-out notice

“We have learnt that the suspect is currently abroad. He left the country maybe two or three months ago. We have initiated the procedure to issue a look-out circular against him,” a senior Bengaluru police officer told DH.