Former Foodpanda exec lists ‘ghost riders’ to pay his credit card debt

Singapore—Nothing gets a criminal more creative than a growing credit card debt. A former payment executive for Foodpanda fabricated fictitious employees in order to transfer company funds to his personal accounts.

According to an initial report by Today Online, 28-year-old Firathul Fariz Ferhat pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery for the purpose of cheating and was sentenced to two months of jail time.

Firathul, formerly a payment executive for Foodpanda, was tasked to keep track of payments for the company’s delivery riders. The payroll spreadsheets included information about the riders such as their names, ID numbers, as well as bank account details.

He created non-existent riders, complete with made-up identities, and put his and his brother’s bank account numbers instead.

The scheme went on for more than a year, and Firathul was able to transfer S$1,608.01 to his brother’s account. The ‘ghost rider’ was the fictional Muhammad Azman Ahmad, a fake employee that Firathul inputted in the database.

Firathul continued with the forgery until January 2017. He inputted S$2,012.83 allegedly belonging to another ‘ghost rider’ named Noor Hisham Paiman, a product of Firathul’s creative criminal mind.

He eventually got promoted to compliance manager.  Even though his salary increased, his lifestyle and expenses could not keep up with his salary. He managed to rake in so much credit card debt that he continued with his scheme in order to pay his dues.

He paid another fake delivery rider named Usof Muhammad Nasir S$2,546.5.

The game ended for Firathul when he had to file a police report that was supposed to cover his tracks. Foodpanda’s auditors noticed the discrepancies in the documents, and tasked him to file a report.

He requested his bank to return the fund transfer of S$2,546.50 to Foodpanda. The company then discovered from the bank statement that the suspicious fund transfer initially came from Firathul’s personal account.

Firathul stole a total of S$7,983.04 throughout his ruse. He faces two months of jail time which could have been at most seven years and additional fines for all charges of forgery./TISG