The government today asked the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to initiate prosecution proceedings against persons involved in the Satyam accounting fraud and partners of Price Waterhouse, the auditors of the IT company.
“SFIO has been asked to begin prosecution for violation of company law in the Satyam case... It will also be against Price Waterhouse partners,” a senior official of the corporate affairs ministry said.
SFIO, an arm of the ministry had investigated the multi-crore Satyam accounting fraud and submitted its reports to the government detailing violations of company law by founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju and others. The investigating agency will initiate proceedings on about 30 charges, mostly under the Companies Act 1956, while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be acting on five or six charges involving criminal offences under the penal code.
The SFIO charges deal with falsification of balance sheet and profit & loss accounts, rigging stock prices, filing of false income tax returns, etc. The MCA asked the SFIO to initiate prosecution in the Satyam case after obtaining opinion of the Solicitor General of India.
Besides Ramalinga Raju, prosecution would also be carried out against Raju’s brother Rama Raju, Satyam’s former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, and Price Waterhouse auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri.