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Govt of India orders probe into Satyam scam

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Government of India on Tuesday ordered probe into the Satyam scandal by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).

The order came after the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Hyderabad, submitted its report to the government after inspecting the books of accounts of Satyam Computer Services and eight other companies belonging to the family of B Ramalinga Raju, the former chairman of Satyam.

"The SFIO will submit its report in three months," Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta told reporters in New Delhi. He also added that the action will be taken without any delay.

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While talking about the failure on the part of Satyam's auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in detecting the fraud, the minister said: "If the auditors are found guilty of misconduct, they will be punished."

Apart from SFIO, concurrent investigations are being conducted by SEBI, the Registrar of Companies and the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India.

Responding to the reports that CID has raided the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hyderabad, the auditing firm said that its office has not been raided and it was assisting agencies investigating the Satyam scam.

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"There is no raid at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Hyderabad office. We are in discussion with different agencies for providing information requested by them," a statement from the firm said. "We are fully cooperating with the agencies and providing whatever information/documents/materials that have been asked for."

Meanwhile, a Reuters report said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is checking the exposure of local banks to fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, as authorities widened their investigation into the country's biggest corporate scandal.

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