Raju may face 'destruction of evidence' charge

3 May 2009 PTI

NEW DELHI: Satyam's disgraced founder and Chairman B Ramalinga Raju may face another serious charge of "destruction of evidence", with CBI saying that 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 got generated FDRs of various banks from his personal computer only.

"...Once the fraud came to light, these original forged FDRs were got 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 fully well that the results were inflated," CBI said in its chargesheet.

CBI has also found that the fake FDRs were of huge amount 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.

The investigating agency, during its analysis of the computer of Raju, found that FDRs were designed and later printed from the same machine, the sources said adding the fake certificates were retrieved from the mirror images designed on the computer.

On the role of auditors, CBI said even though there were 135 "control deficiencies" identified in the integrated audit conducted in accordance with the standards of Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), 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".

The agency said that the letter pads of M/S PriceWater House were recovered from the computer systems of Satyam Computer. These letters were supposed to be written by the auditors and addressed to the banks seeking confirmations about the balances, it added.

"Gopalakrishnan, as part of the conspiracy, got these letters generated in the computer systems for the purpose of creation of records, which depicts his privy and involvement in the conspiracy," CBI said.

Gopalakrishnan also made Satyam Computers generate certain letters addressed to the banks, directing them to directly inform the auditors, CBI said

It further said, "However, these letters were generated merely for the purpose of record, which shows the role of the accused auditor in the criminal conspiracy. This has been proved by Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (GEQD) opinion.

"But for his active cooperation and disregarding the crucial evidence available with him, this fraud would not have taken place for so may years."

CBI has already got permission from the court to continue with its probe during which the agency will be focusing on money re-routing and remittances made from abroad.