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A trial court on Monday sentenced the founder of erstwhile Satyam Computer Services (SCSL), Ramalinga Raju, and brother Rama Raju to six months of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh each for violation of various provisions of the Companies Act.
The former chief financial officer of Satyam, Vadlamani Srinivas, and former chief executive officer Ram Mynampati were also sentenced to six months imprisonment, beside a fine of Rs 10 lakh each.
The court has imposed a fine of Rs 2.66 crore on former independent director of SCSL, Krishna Palepu, to be paid within two months. SCSL was accused of failing to obtain central government opinion regarding requisite qualification of Palepu for payment of professional charges.
According to Serious Fraud Investigation Office counsel Raghu, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 each on all former independent directors of Satyam — Vinod K Dham, Krishna G Palepu, T R Prasad, V S Raju, Mangalam Srinivas and Mendu Ramamohan Rao.
All the accused were given a month’s time in case they decide to appeal against the judgment.
The police’s economic offences wing (EOW) had filed a separate case with regard to the Satyam scam. The judgment in another case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is slated for December 23.
Altogether, EOW had filed seven cases against Raju and his former colleagues. Of these, they were convicted in six cases and acquitted in one. The charges levelled against the accused included fudging of balance sheet, accounts and payment of dividends. One of the accused G Jayaraman was not convicted as his offence had been compounded before the Company Law Board earlier.
On the other hand, the CBI charged Raju and former employees of Satyam with offences ranging from falsification of records, cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and causing disappearance of evidence. No charges were made against former independent directors of the company. The charges framed by CBI attract punishment ranging from three years to life imprisonment.
Apart from the Raju brothers, those charged by the CBI include Vadlamani Srinivas, former PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors S Gopalakrishna and T Srinivas and former employees of the company, Suryanarayana Raju, G Ramakrishna, D Venkatapathy Raju and Ch Srisailam.
The Satyam scam came to light on January 7, 2009, when Ramalinga Raju confessed to a massive accounting fraud in the company.
He said the balance sheet of the company consisted of non-existent cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore, an accrued interest of Rs 376 crore which was also non-existent, an understated liability of Rs 1,230 crore and an over-stated debtors position of Rs 490 crore (as against Rs 2,651 reflected in the books).
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- Former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas and former CEO Ram Mynampati also sentenced to six months imprisonment besides a fine of Rs 10 lakh each
- Former independent director Krishna Palepu fined Rs 2.66 cr
- The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 each on all former independent directors of Satyam — Vinod K Dham, Krishna G Palepu, T R Prasad, V S Raju, Mangalam Srinivas and Mendu Ramamohan Rao
