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Late on Friday evening, the Andhra Pradesh police arrested Satyam’s disgraced founder Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer Valdamani Srinivasan — rumoured to have attempted suicide earlier in the day — would be arrested tomorrow, DGP S S P Yadav said.
“The current board ceases to exist and there would not be any meeting tomorrow,” Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said after emerging from a three-hour meeting with his ministry’s top brass. “The Centre is considering appointment of suitable persons as directors of Satyam following interim permission by the Company Law Board,” which will meet in the next seven days.
The high-profile Satyam board was to meet in Hyderabad Saturday to discuss the fallout of the biggest accounting fraud in India’s corporate history, and the fate of Satyam’s 50,000 employees.
Investigators raided Satyam’s Hyderabad offices overnight and seized documents. Eight Satyam Group companies — Maytas Properties, Maytas Infrastructure, Satyam BPO, Nipuna Services, Knowledge Dynamics, Nitor Global Solutions, CA System ASP and Satyam Venture Engineering Services — are under the Government’s scanner.
Satyam’s auditor Price Waterhouse — which did not detect the fraud carried out over several years —will have to wind up its Indian operations, if found guilty of any wrongdoing, minister Gupta said.
Satyam’s new board will decide on the new management of the company, the minister said. “The Government has decided to approach the Company Law Board to ensure that the operations of the company continue uninterrupted.”
There was, however, no decision yet by the Government to take over Satyam’s management, Gupta said.
Raju will appear before a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) probe team at 4 pm tomorrow to answer questions on the sale and purchase of Satyam shares during 2004 and 2009. His counsel Bharat Kumar appeared before SEBI on behalf of Raju today.
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Beware of ANDHRA PROMIOTOSNext to follow are NAGARJUNA and IVRCL. Please think twice before buying the sharesof companies promoted by Andhraites. Its really amusing to see OPM of SATYAM was mere 3%, I think SATYAM is overstaffed and many staffs dont have work and loot money sitting idle. Its high time the new team look all these issues and give some confidence to investors like me
I think what CB-CID dept. knows about the corporate accounts and they said to be grilled Raju. Useless CM... This YSR would bring his own people into the board.. You see the world.. this world is controlled by ethicaless politicians...who are not constructive....Atleast, other corporates see to that politicians shouldnt involve into corporate affairs...
Americans are killed in Mumbai terror, Hence pursued by US. American investors are affected, so satyam fraud also to be pursued. Otherwise Raju
Karunandhi, Lalu, Sibu Soren, Mulayam, Jayalalitha, Sonia and other stalwarts in corruption must be wondering that Raju has beaten them in the art of stealing public money. It is very likely they will send the next generation to Raju for on the job training. It looks like the amount of money swindled by Raju is far in excess of the Spectrum scandal. Raju has elevated India's corruption culture several notches up. With all his money power, I am sure he will come out clean like all our corrupt politicians very soon. He should not have done this unholy thing under the banner of the scared Sanskrit word "Satyam".
It is a great shame and disgrace as Satyam's shares were listed in Overseas Stock Exchanges also. Government should act strongly against persons responsible for this fraud, which should act as a deterrent. We also expect the Government to act swiftly on the 'Spectrum' fraud, which involves huge money. The persons behind those frauds should be brought to books, as it involves huge revenue loss to the Government.
I am sure it is the nexus between big business, politicians and so called big 'independent' auditors that have played with lives and livelihoods of 53,000 hardworking men and women. Shame on them. My sister works for Satyam and she and her colleagues who gave so much to the company feel cheated.
The high salary for fresh graduates to work in IT industry and low IT service bids from foreign countries by Indian firms are not sustainable. Failure of Satyam involves both of these components besides mismangement. If Indian Industries assume the same path, more failures will happen.