Raju used over 7,000 false invoices to fudge books

27 Apr 2009, PTI

NEW DELHI: The financial fraud perpetrated by the founders of Satyam Computer Services was executed through a well-planned accounting system that used as many as 7,561 fraudulent invoices worth Rs.5,117 crore to inflate the company's sales, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleged Monday.

To perpetrate the fraud, the accused also created an identity and code that not only bypassed all other accounting systems, but also managed to hide the fraudulent invoices from other departments, the premier investigating agency said.

"Investigations revealed that the accused have already entered 6,603 out of these false and fabricated invoices amounting to Rs 4,746 crore into their books of accounts thereby inflating the revenues of the company to this tune," said the CBI in a statement.

The CBI came to the conclusion using cyber forensic techniques to unearth the alleged Rs 780 crore ($1.5-billion) scam that is alleged to have been perpetrated by group's founder B. Ramalinga Raju and his associates.

The accused had used an emergency option of feeding invoices directly to the company's inventory management software, which in normal circumstances would be routed and validated through several software systems.

Simultaneously, the scamsters generated a new identification code called "Super User", that enabled them to hide or "unhide" invoices created in the company's Invoice Management System, thereby making the fraudulent invoices invisible to other departments.

"The amounts pertaining to these false and fabricated invoices were shown as receivables in the books of accounts of Satyam, thereby inflating the revenues of the company," the statement said.

The agency also identified the computer server used for storing the "incriminating data" resulting in the identification of the perpetrators of the fraud, unearthing the quantum of the fraud, and the modus operandi used by the accused.

Meanwhile, the trial court rejected the bail application of the Raju brothers and former chief financial officer V. Srinivas April 25 and gave CBI the permission to conduct further investigation into acquisition of assets by the accused and diversion of funds.