SES sales exec dupes partners of crores

CHENNAI, INDIA: It is proving to be a summer of discontent for Chennai partners as some of them are once again in the grip of a scam worth several crore rupees. The accused this time is a sales executive of a distributor and a channel partner, who in collision are alleged to have duped several partners across Chennai.

On talking to affected partners The DQ Week discovered that the modus operandi that Arun Prasad, a sales executive in SES and Alwar Rajan, Proprietor, Sree Computers, Chennai, operated on was that Prasad would bill products in the name of few channel partners and transfer the materials to Rajan.

The whole issue came to light when SES asked a couple of partners to clear their outstanding amounts which had been pending for several months. It was then the partners realized that someone had misused their credit limit and account for carrying out these fraudulent transactions. By that time both Prasad and Rajan had absconded.

Explaining the sequence of events Vijay, Proprietor, Emerald Info Systems, an affected channel partner said that the sales executive of SES Technologies has misused the accounts of the company by billing all the products in his company name and transferring the products to a company called Sree Computers in Chennai. “It was a well planned scam, where Arun Prasad of SES sent products to our company without taking any purchase orders from us. When we questioned him about the same, Prasad asked us to transfer the materials to Sree Computers in Chennai. Now a few months down the line we have received a notification from SES in which we have been asked to pay nearly Rs 18 lakh for the products, which we never ordered.”

He also said that the security cheques given to SES Technologies were misused by the sales executive. Vijay also questioned how the products were billed without receiving the purchase order from the company, as they were worth several lakhs. “Our credit limit with SES is only Rs 1 lakh, then how could the distributor bill us several lakhs worth materials, that too without even receiving a single purchase order from us?”

He alleged that the sales executive has played a similar game with many other dealers in the city and the total amount of the scam might run into a few crores.

Recounting a similar instance, Akhilesh Chandoke, Proprietor, Chandoke Systems, Chennai said that Prasad had also sent him motherboards worth Rs 2.5 lakh without any purchase orders. However, SES Technologies claims that Chandoke has an outstanding payment with them. “As soon as I got the products I warned Prasad and asked him to take the material out of my shop. I wonder how there is an outstanding payment in my company’s name when I did not buy any materials from the distributor.”

CP Praveen, CEO, Vasavi Computers, Vellore claimed that he has also been defrauded in a similar fashion. “We haven’t issued any purchase orders or bought any materials from the distributor. However, they billed us for products worth nearly Rs 35 lakh in the name of our company without our knowledge and are now asking us to pay the money.”

The affected dealers have approached Confed-ITA, who in turn has sent a written communication to SES Technologies, the copy of which is with The DQ Week. “We have written about the fraudulent activity that has happened with partners in Tamil Nadu and have asked the distributor to take severe action against the sales executive and help the partners in resolving the issue. We have also asked SES to compulsorily send the complete statement of accounts for the whole year from the main office to all our partners dealing with SES, which is what the other major distributors like Tech Pacific and Redington do in order to maintain transparency. This should be practiced by all other distributors by default,” informed PN Prasad, President, Confed-ITA.

When contacted, Suresh Tuteja, GM—Finance, SES Technologies, informed that the company is investigating the matter seriously. “I am in Chennai for the second time within a week and we are investigating the issue. We are also considering taking the help of forensic department if needed to check whether the documents have been manipulated. We might be able to come to a conclusion within a week’s time and would sit with the affected channel partners and Confed-ITA representatives for a discussion and would initiate legal actions on whoever is found to be guilty,” Tuteja affirmed.

Related developments:

Sree Computers files Insolvency Petition: Meanwhile a twist in the tale happened when Alwar Rajan, Proprietor, Sree Computers, who is alleged to be one of the masterminds in the scam, filed an Insolvency Petition in the Madras High Court last month.

Madurai survives scam: On the other hand, Madurai, successfully managed to resolve a similar scam. A Muthuswamy, Secretary, Confed-ITA, explained that two executives of Compuage Infocom were sacked for their alleged role. “We heard that partners in Madurai were cheated by the sales executives of Compuage by forging their accounts and informed this to their top management, who investigated the case and cleared the dealers. They also sacked two employees—Narayanan and Saravanan for involving in fraudulent activity and issued no due certificate to the affected partners,” he added.