Satyam inflated sales by Rs 47.46 billion, says CBI

28 Apr 2009,

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said that the fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services inflated sales by Rs 47.46 billion.

The CBI said that with the help of cyber forensic techniques, it was able to decipher modus operandi of Satyam corporate fraud.

"It happened like this-the accused were hiding some of the invoices that was generated through Excel porting. As a result, the concerned business circles were not aware that such invoices are existing. These invoices were not dispatched to the customers even. In fact these false invoices were generated for purpose of inflating the sales and thus inflating the revenue of the company. As a result of further investigation, individuals who generated and hidden these false invoices have been identified," said Harsh Bahl, a CBI spokesman.

The bail application of former chairman of Satyam, Ramalinga Raju and others was dismissed by the trial court on April 25.

In early January, Ramalinga Raju shocked investors by saying profits had been overstated for years, putting in doubt the survival of a company once ranked as India's fourth-largest software services exporter. The government quickly stepped in and sacked the board to limit damage to India's once-shining IT sector.

Satyam, which counts Citigroup Inc, Cisco Systems Inc. and General Electric among its clients, has not reported results since releasing its July-September figures in October.

Its accounts are in the process of being reconciled and restated.