Ramalinga Raju’s Satyam scam has had many business analysts and experts stunned as it involved hiding of funds in excess of Rs. 7000 crores from the entire Board and also from the auditing bodies. The Serious Fraud Investigating Team will now join CID to help unravel the Satyam Fraud.
The Serious Fraud Investigating Office (SFIO) has also started probing into the role of independent directors, managers and officers of the company in the Satyam scam.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has given instructions to the SFIO to probe the involvement and role of the independent directors, managers and officers of the company in the alleged misrepresentation, falsification and manipulation of information in the financial statements.
“The order said it is has be probed whether the conduct of the affairs of the company by such directors and officers of the company was in an improper or fraudulent manner,” an official said.
The ministry of corporate affairs ordered the probe by Serious Fraud Investigating Office on January 13 into the scam.
The six-member team headed by K V S Singh, additional director of SFIO and five assistant directors has already begun their probe.
Ramalinga Raju the main accused over the multi crore Satyam scam is trying to avoid SEBI’s probe in the case. “We issued an order at 8.30 pm and he surrendered at 9 pm. So obviously he knew it would be difficult if he came in front of us and if he was questioned by SEBI,” said Pradyumna K Reddy, advocate for SEBI.
So if SEBI lawyers are to be believed, was there a planned strategy to escape interrogation? Sources say that Raju used his political connections to ensure that he is arrested before SEBI could interrogate him. And then despite having a provision of seeking bail once in judicial custody, his lawyers did not apply for bail.
The police is seeking to question him, but Ram Mynampati has proved smarter: he has flown away.
The official spokesperson of Satyam Hari told TOI that Mynampati had left for the US on Sunday, January 11, to address the “concern” of clients. Hari was unable to say when the interim CEO appointed by Ramalinga Raju before he quit, would return. But analysts were askance. “How could somebody who was on the radar of the CID allowed to get away? Was the police looking the other way?” asked an analyst.
Mynampati, a whole time director of Satyam for the last two years, was the right hand man of Ramalinga Raju and controlled over 60% of Satyam’s business.”
What was the need for him to push off before meeting the new board and handing over charge to them? Something is fishy,” said a senior Satyam staffer.
Additional director general of police (CID) A Sivanarayana, when asked, said that he was not aware about Mynampati’s whereabouts. “In any case, he is not an accused. He will be questioned when he comes back,” the cop said.
On Tuesday, a nine member team of CID officials swooped on the office of Price Water House Coopers in upmarket Jubilee Hill and questioned partners S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas. The sleuths also searched all the three floors of the posh office.
“It is a vast case with multiple dimensions. Right now the CID is focussing on Price Waterhouse Coopers,” IG, CID, V S K Kaumudi told The Times of India on Tuesday. “Our officials have seized important documents and copied data pertaining to the Satyam accounts from the Price Waterhouse Coopers office,” the cop added.
Though Ramalinga Raju has mentioned in his confession letter, that Satyam’s inflated profit was just to build investor confidence and no profits were made by insider trading by any of Satyam’s promoters, SEBI is still probing into the matter of insider trading.
Market regulator SEBI’s special team, set up to probe into the financial irregularities in Satyam Computers, has set its focus among other things on alleged ‘insider trading’ carried out by top executives in the IT firm in the recent past, sources said today.
“Our major concerns in this case include any insider trading activities that might have occurred in Satyam shares and all aspects of fraud committed in the company’s book,” Sebi sources told reporters here today.
The market regulator formed an investigation team soon after Ramalinga Raju confessed that he cooked the company’s balance sheet for seven years with inflated profit numbers and understated liabilities.
The three-member team, led by senior SEBI official A Sunilkumar, is understood to be progressing with its probe at Satyam headquarters in Hyderabad.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wants to show that no leniency or favoritism is being shown towards Ramalinga rajju, founder of Satyam and key accused in the Satyam scam.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he is “not too concerned” about Satyam Computer fraud in the long run as India has very deep strength in IT but wanted the “guilty should be punished.”
“On the one hand, the strength that we have in IT is a very deep strength. So with a long term view … in a long term perspective, I am not too concerned about Satyam development,” Gandhi replied to a query on how concerned he was about the Satyam Computers scam.
Ramalinga Raju who has been sent to jail and denied bail until 23rd January 2009, will have a huge list of eminent lawyers to defend him. This was announced by their lawyer S. Bharat Kumar Monday soon after a court adjourned the hearing on the bail petition of the disgraced former top brass of the company to Friday.
The court also adjourned the hearing on the petition of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) seeking their custody and another petition by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking permission to question them for the massive fraud.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D. Ramakrishna adjourned the hearing on all the three petitions to Friday.
Satyam’s founder and former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother and former managing director B. Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas were remanded to judicial custody till Jan 23. They have been kept at Chanchalguda Central Jail here.
Bharat Kumar told reporters outside the Nampally Metropolitan Court Complex that the judge adjourned the hearing to allow Ramalinga Raju to file a counter to the SEBI petition.
Satyam’s Ex-CFO Vadlamani Srinivas is under the spotlight now, and not for the right reasons. According to various businesss analysts and IT leaders, a scam of such a large proportion (7800 cr.) does not seem to be possible without the CFO having any knowledge about it. The CFO who soon gave his resignation after Satyam’s co-founder Ramalinga Raju tendered his fraud scam letter. Soon after the Raju brothers were taken i nto arrest, the Satyam CFO too was arrested.
Life for the founder of Satyam Computer Services has taken a huge turnabout. From a business tycoon used to sleeping in luxurious beds and driving around in a Mercedes, B Ramalinga Raju, the disgraced chief of Satyam Computer Services, has now turned into someone who will sleep on a coarse thick mattress and share a cell that includes a common Indian toilet-with about 40 undertrials wanted for murder, rape, chain snatching, pocket picking and selling illicit liquor.
According to Chanchalguda jail officials, B Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju were brought to the prison at 8 pm and, after finishing the formalities, were ushered into the admission barrack, with 40 other day’s undertrials. The brothers were frisked at the reception and a metal detector was also run on them.
As part of the jail procedures, all valuables like jewellery, cash and prohibitive items like cell phone and knives belonging to the undertrials were taken away from them and kept in a locker. Ramalinga Raju and his brother have also deposited Rs 5,000 cash, which they had on them, with the jail officials. After that, the duo was led to the jail enclosure and put in the admission barrack, where all the day’s undertrials were kept.
On Sunday morning, a duty doctor will examine all new undertrials and give a health status report. Based on the medical report, the jail officials will segregate the prisoners and assign them to individual barracks or cells.
Close on the heels of CEO and founder of Satyam Computer Services, Ramalinga Raju in regards with the Satyam scam came out followed by his arrest yesterday. News has come out that the Satyam CFO, Vadlamani too has been arrested.
The CFO of the tainted company Satyam Computers was facing severe criticism for him being caught unawares regarding the accounting fraud in Satyam. How could a CFO of a company be unaware of a fraud of such magnitude was the pertinent question.
The Chief Financial Officer of India’s Satyam Computer Services was arrested, Hyderabad police said on Saturday, as authorities seek to unravel India’s biggest corporate scandal.
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B Ramalinga Raju, the founder-chairman of Satyam Computer, and his brother Rama Raju, who were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police on Friday night, were questioned by the police throughout the night.
Police questioned the two for more than three hours, Raju’s lawyer Bharat Kumar said on Saturday morning. The Crime branch of Andhra Pradesh booked the two after questioning under charges of fraud, forgery.
Bharat Kumar said that the two have been booked under Section 120 b (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 406, 467 and 427 (criminal breach of trust, forgery and using forged documents as genuine).
Raju surrendered to the police on Friday night and was arrested for criminal fraud.
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