ICAI to ban three auditors in Satyam case

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is set to ban three of its members, including Price Waterhouse partners Srinivas Talluri and S Gopalakrishnan, for life, with regard to the Rs 14,000-crore Satyam accounting scam. The third member to be banned is V Srinivasu, senior vice-president and director at erstwhile Satyam Computer Services.

Fines imposed
ICAI has also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on each of the three. This will mark the end of ICAI’s investigation into the country’ biggest corporate scam, unearthed in 2009.

ICAI President K Raghu on Tuesday said the three members had been barred from practising as chartered accountants for life, adding their names would soon be removed from the institute’s register of members.

Talluri and Gopalakrishnan were part of Price Waterhouse, Bangalore, Satyam’s statutory auditor from 2000 to 2009.

While Talluri was signing partner and engagement leader of the audit team working with Satyam, Gopalakrishnan was partner.

ICAI’s latest decision was taken at a recent disciplinary panel meeting of the institute, which found the officials guilty of professional misconduct in auditing Satyam’s books.

Raghu said another ICAI member, Prabhakar Gupta, former head of Satyam’s internal audit, had also been found guilty in the case, adding his name had already been removed from ICAI’s register. The accounting regulator had barred two other members, P Sivaprasad and Chintapatla Ravindernath, for professional misconduct. However, their cases were pending with the court, Raghu said.