Satyam’s disgraced founder and Chairman B Ramalinga Raju may face another serious charge of “destruction of evidence”, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) saying the fake fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) were destroyed as soon as the multi-crore scam came to light.
The agency, which is probing the biggest corporate scam of the country, said in its chargesheet that Raju, as chairman of the company, generated FDRs of various banks from his personal computer.
“...Once the fraud came to light, these original forged FDRs were destroyed as part of the conspiracy, which amounts to destruction of evidence...knowing fully well that the financial health of the company was poor and also knowing that the results were inflated,” the CBI said in its chargesheet.
The CBI also found that the fake FDRs were of huge amounts, as the interest on these deposits was projected to be over Rs 375 crore, as against the actual interest income of Rs 7.42 lakh only.
On the role of auditors, the CBI said even though there were 135 “control deficiencies” identified in the integrated audit conducted in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, PriceWater House’s S Gopalakrishnan, who held the company account from 2001-07, “did not bring these controlled deficiencies to the notice of audit committee and thereby, facilitated the continuance of the fraudulent practices unabated”.
