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Hyderabad/New York
The management of Satyam Computers has said that it has no clue about Ramalinga Raju's whereabouts, even as a team of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) reached Hyderabad to investigate a case of fraud related to the company.According to some sources, Raju left for Texas on Wednesday morning shortly after admitting to committing a Rs 7,000 crore fraud.
There is a petition pending over his Maytas deal for which British Telecom's Solutions firm - U-paid had demanded the presence of Raju and senior directors of Satyam for questioning by its lawyers.
As per unconfirmed TV reports, he could have also left for Dubai.
The former Satyam's Chairman is also unreachable on his mobile phone.
The company is expected to hold a news conference at around 5:00 pm on Thursday evening. The interim CEO of Satyam Computer Services, Ram Mynampati, is likely to address the media.
On Wednesday, Mynampati admitted to the outsourcer inflating profits over several years and that senior officials have been summoned to the Satyam's headquarters in Hyderabad for further deliberations aimed at ending the crisis.
Meanwhile, Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said the government is verifying Raju''s statement.
On Wednesday, Raju claimed that Satyam had inflated its earnings over the past few years, but no other board member had been aware of these financial irregularities.
"Once the contents of the message is verified, a proper action would be taken. If it is correct, it is shameful," said Gupta.
India''s biggest corporate scandal in memory threatens future foreign investment flows into Asia's third-largest economy and casts a cloud over growth in its once-booming outsourcing sector.
Amit Mitra, Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said that the systematic failure might not necessarily spread to other companies, but the incident should provoke the corporate world to have fresh thinking on corporate governance.
The head of Satyam Computer Services resigned on Wednesday, saying the firm's profits had been inflated, sending the stock down more than 80 per cent and roiling investor confidence.
Satyam's fraud may batter World Bank's image: Report
The revelation of Satyam Computer Services Ltd of about a Rs 7,800-crore fraud may dent the image of the World Bank as it kept quiet until last month about its suspicion of the IT firm's corporate malpractices, a leading financial daily said on Thursday.
In 2006, the World Bank told the US Justice Department it suspected Satyam may have been involved in bribery, the ‘Wall Street Journal’ reported, citing bank officials.
However, in late 2007, the bank completed an internal investigation and found that Satyam had acted improperly.
Under World Bank rules, the company then had the chance to argue why it shouldn't be banned.
"The bank should have been more responsible about
reporting publicly on what they knew to be misconduct at highest levels of Satyam," the paper quoted Bea Edwards, International Reform Director at the Government Accountability Project, Washington DC, watchdog group, as saying.
In February 2008, the World Bank temporarily suspended Satyam from bidding on new contracts, and then in September formally made the firm ineligible to bid on future contracts, the ‘Journal’ added.
But the paper said it did not announce the ban, called a debarment, until December 23 -- and then only after press reports about it.
Meanwhile, a World Bank spokesperson told the ‘Journal’ that it had acted responsibly. "We took the action we needed to take as an institution to maintain our high corporate integrity standards," the spokesperson said.
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we have a very good system but rules, standards n guidelines can not apply itself. All professionals,liable for application of these, are equally responsible for this mishapenning.
PWC, satyam auditors ..... the brain behind the satyam scam.
Raju was apprently ably aided by the top executives of (A)sathyam(particularly the finance head,whoever it may be) and the internal and external auditors. The internal audit sub-committee of the Board as well as all the directors cannot escape complicity in the enormous crime. I also feel the bankers to the company cannot also escape being blamed because they kept quiet eventhough the bank balance was inflated and shown in the balance sheet of sathyam and the banks didnot point out the discrepency. The truth of the matter appears to be that all are involved in the crime and the govt should not dleay and bring ALL the culprits to book and show the world that guilty will be punished and nothing will stand in the way! This alone will make both Indian and foreign investors happy!
Hahahah, I am now in Dubai, enjoying at Burj al arab and will be going fishing in the evening... Sorry guys... but you can start again... remember the spider and ant story??
Indian judiciary system punishes only the poor people..So, Raju dont want to worry about anything... This SEBI,CB-CID...investigations are all name-sake.. Gulty Raju will give money and he will escape...Unnecessarily media gives hype on each and every matter and after that when new matter comes, this Raju will not be in talk at all.. He does his business in Dubai silently....Govt. just keep mum..and support all the fraudulances... Good governance...
Mr Ramalinga Raju, where ever u may be hiding i.e assuming u did not have the guts either to keep ur promise of facing the consequences of ur actions or end ur life and spare further ignominy to ur family , u may be thinking ur holding all the aces but it is a matter of time before u r proved wrong. I am sure the law will catch up with u sooner than later and justice will be served to all those millions who have become millionaires to paupers in a single day. The second fatal mistake u have done is taking the entire blame for the fraud on urself thinking that all those spineless people and institutions who colluded with u would go scot free and get on with their lifes as if nothing had happened. I am equally sure, the investigation by SEBI, CB-CID and ROC would bring the truth out and all ur accomplices (who acquisced for your self admitted fraud out of fear, indifference, greed or whatever) will be caught and justice handed over to them too. The day is not far off when u r caught.
The whole system seems to be highly corrupt and can be bought so easily. – PM and PC keeps boasting of our corrupt free system. Plus all Our Regulators SEBI/BSE/NSE/NSDL/DCA/MCA are toothless. They seem to have dentures and Not teeth They are good in issuing dikats only but not following it up. We have a grievance against STERLITE INDUSTRIES who Forcibly took away shares acquired thru IPO in 1993. We must have written innumerous complaints to SEBI/BSE/NSE/NSDL/DCA/MCA but in vain. All they do is just forward the complaints and nothing more It appears that company is very confident that SEBI/BSE/NSE /NSDL/DCA/MCA are powerless and cannot do anything. Good luck to all investors think trillion times before investing in Indian markets and loosing your pants No one is going to protect your money - Kumudha and Suresh