9 January 2010
Exactly a year ago Ramalinga Raju went from owning the country's fourth largest IT company, the $2-billion Satyam Computers, to the Hyderabad jail.
His dramatic transit took the lid off a humungous financial fraud, obscured until then by a complex web of fictitious companies, clients, transactions, receipts and even fictitious income tax payment certificates. Corporate India, and very much everyone else, was left gaping in disbelief. The mask had come off an icon of India's celebrated new economy, baring him as a swindler, not just of Satyam's crores but also the trust of millions of shareholders whose wealth, worth Rs 14,162 crore, vanished in one fell swoop on January 7 last year - the day his cunning run came to an end.
So, a year down the line, where is Raju? At the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), the chosen sanctuary for VIPs in distress. It's the same hospital where K Chandrasekhar Rao was taken when he went on a fast that led to the Centre's hurried decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and where India's richest MP Lagadapati Rajagopal rushed to when he too went on a fast to reverse the bifurcation decision. Raju is, of course, not fasting. He is apparently being treated for a minor heart ailment, but more worryingly, also for a damaged liver induced by the deadly hepatitis C virus.
Raju has been in jail without bail ever since January 9 last year. Apparently, he was not seriously interested in bail. The reason: Being out would bring him face to face with persons whom he owed money. Barely days before Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's sudden death a little over three months ago, Raju got admitted at NIMS. The Satyam scamster has been in hospital ever since, with a short break in jail. His brother Rama Raju, his finance honcho, Srinivas Vadlamani, and seven others - including the two Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) auditors who are accused of colluding with Raju - are still in jail.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed three chargesheets. They seek to establish not only Raju's confession of cooking the books of Satyam but also his devious modus operandi. What's more, the CBI claims the swindle is bigger than what Raju has confessed to - that he started siphoning money out of the company two years earlier than what he has claimed. The third chargesheet, filed earlier this week, says that the Rajus produced forged income tax payment certificates - worth Rs 329 crore - from the US and other foreign countries to seek income tax exemption in India. "If convicted, Raju will be put away for at least 10 years in jail," said a top criminal lawyer in Hyderabad. "But the complex scam will have to be established. The Rajus are lining up the best defence lawyers."
Already, Raju has lost control of Satyam and Maytas Infra, the company that he was building for the future. It's believed that it is only a matter of time before Maytas Properties, Raju's real estate firm, too will slip out of Raju's hands. The CBI probe is continuing and a fourth chargesheet would be filed at the end of the present round of investigations which are focusing on how (and if) Raju ferreted money overseas and the channels he used to bring it back into the country.
According to the CBI chargesheets, Raju's giant con began in 1999 - two years before 2001 (the year Raju is claiming he started fudging Satyam's accounts). The money was allegedly diverted to the front companies floated by Raju and his brothers. The accounts of Satyam were settled by writing off this amount as "doubtful advances" . It's hardly surprising that these front companies were involved in agri business, an euphemism for buying land - Raju's big passion to satisfy which hefty amounts were routinely pilfered from Satyam.
As per CBI investigations, the Rajus owned 6012 acres of land in Karnataka, Nagpur, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh, out of which as much 4817 acres of land was in Greater Hyderabad. However, there are many who believe Raju's land bank is even bigger. Given the complexity of his operations, the CBI has probably not been able to detect it all. The CBI chargesheet says Ramalinga Raju, his brothers Rama Raju and Suryanarayana Raju, and their family members "acquired several thousands of acres of land, several thousands of square yards of housing plots and several thousands of square feet of built up area."
What's interesting is that much of the land was owned by privately-held Raju companies in which his extended family members, country cousins and even cooks, drivers and gardeners were directors. These 132 'directors' (benamidars ) have all been booked by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The benamidars claim they never had any control over the assets or any clue about the papers they were asked to sign. Following their written statements, the ED has attached 297 immovable properties, including a house built on a 4000-square yard plot in Hyderabad's tony Jubilee Hills where Raju's elder son Teja Raju lives. Of course, the attachment order can be challenged in a higher court.
Raju's lust for land had to be met with fistfuls of money. Much of it came illegally from Satyam. Raju borrowed a sum of Rs 1,221 crore from banks on the basis of fabricated board resolutions between 2000 and 2008 and, as per the chargesheet, "misappropriated these monies of Satyam detrimental to its interest." Curiously, the interest on these loans was paid by Satyam. How Satyam shelled out interest on loans that were never reflected in its books without attracting the attention of the audit committee or the board of directors is a matter of surprise. The Rajus also merged a part-owned Satyam subsidiary, the loss-making Nipuna, with Satyam, for which two companies - one incorporated in Mauritius and the other in Cayman Islands - were paid off handsomely for parting with their shares in Nipuna. The ownership of these two companies is still to be established.
There were a host of other tricks. One of them was to create fictitious companies that ostensibly contracted work to Satyam and brought in revenues to the company. To impart credibility in these fraudulent operations, some staffers were also assigned to these 'projects'. From the side of these fictitious customers, fictitious mails were also sent to the staffers from fictitious email accounts to create the impression that the project was being monitored by them. "The scope of the fraud was mind boggling . It required a very twisted, even if sophisticated , mind to conjure it all up," an official connected to the investigation told TOI. The CBI has established that in 2006, just to service seven fictitious customers, an amount of Rs 65.88 cores was actually spent as salaries and other overheads. In the process, Satyam raised 63 bills to demand Rs 431 crore. This sum never came into the company but was shown as received. The result: inflation of Satyam's revenues that helped push up its scrip.
Analysts tracking the case say that nemesis has caught up with Raju and he will be punished not only by the due process of law but also by the hepatitis C virus that doctors say is possibly as dangerous as the HIV virus. But the full story of the fudge will never be known unless Raju decides to bare it all. For now, he is mum: he has said nothing beyond his confessional statement to the police.
Courtesy;TOI
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Ramalinga Raju and 5 others chargesheeted by CBI after one year
Hyderabad, Jan 7 (PTI) Tainted chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju and five others were chargesheeted by CBI today for allegedly filing false income tax returns resulting in a loss of Rs 126.57 crore to the company and shareholders.
Besides Raju, the others chargsheeted included his brother B Rama Raju, the then CFO V Srinivas, the then Vice President (Finance) G Ramakrishna of Satyam Computers and two auditors of PricewaterhouseCoopers -- S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas.
The 30-page chargesheet was filed in a designated court here under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 and 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (use of forged documents as genuine) and 477-A (falsification of accounts) of the IPC.
The chargesheet cited 32 documents and 26 witnesses and the entire documentation runs into 3552 pages.
Ramalinga Raju made gardeners, drivers kings
2 Jan 2010
HYDERABAD: In disgraced Satyam boss Ramalinga Raju’s land, even gardeners were made maharajas! Several gardeners, truck drivers and others, who were working in the mango gardens and orchards, belonging to Raju brothers, for meagre salaries of Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month, have been found to possess more than 50 acres of land worth crores of rupees.
Not only this, these workers were also made directors of several fictitious companies floated by Raju. And a majority of these lands are situated in a single village called Loyapalli of Ibrahimpatnam mandal in Ranga Reddy district.
Records with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) show that the Raju brothers had purchased as much as 4,200 acres of land in this village alone in 2006.
Though official records state that the entire land was purchased for a mere Rs 30 crore, its actual price is much more and its present value is not less than Rs 4,200 crore at the rate of Rs 1 crore per acre. The ED has so far attached 312 properties acquired by the Raju brothers allegedly with the Satyam scam money.
In 2006, for example, a 54 acre plot in Loyapalli village was purchased for Rs 36 lakh and was registered in the name of Ch Suryanarayana Raju, a gardener working in the mango orchards of Raju brothers at a monthly salary of Rs 5,000. When the ED sleuths quizzed this gardener on his source of income, he revealed that the land was purchased by the Raju brothers through SRSR Holdings company and the sale deeds and other papers were also lying with them.
“They have just used my name and the question of my paying income tax for this amount does not arise because this is not my income and I never filed any IT returns nor do I possess a PAN card,” the gardener told the ED authorities. Interestingly, after this purchase, the Raju brothers made this gardener a director in several of their fictitious companies floated for holding the land.
The same is the case with K Venkatapathi Raju, another gardener in whose name 54 acres were purchased and M V Suryanarayana Raju, a garden supervisor whose name was used for registering a 56-acre land. Likewise, S V Samba Murthy Raju, a truck driver working with the Rajus has 53 acres of land registered against his name.
Samba Murthy Raju was also made director of two companies, Sahayadri Green Lands Company and Devagarbha Agros. The EDs Hyderabad Zone authorities had attached all these properties.
HYDERABAD: In disgraced Satyam boss Ramalinga Raju’s land, even gardeners were made maharajas! Several gardeners, truck drivers and others, who were working in the mango gardens and orchards, belonging to Raju brothers, for meagre salaries of Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month, have been found to possess more than 50 acres of land worth crores of rupees.
Not only this, these workers were also made directors of several fictitious companies floated by Raju. And a majority of these lands are situated in a single village called Loyapalli of Ibrahimpatnam mandal in Ranga Reddy district.
Records with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) show that the Raju brothers had purchased as much as 4,200 acres of land in this village alone in 2006.
Though official records state that the entire land was purchased for a mere Rs 30 crore, its actual price is much more and its present value is not less than Rs 4,200 crore at the rate of Rs 1 crore per acre. The ED has so far attached 312 properties acquired by the Raju brothers allegedly with the Satyam scam money.
In 2006, for example, a 54 acre plot in Loyapalli village was purchased for Rs 36 lakh and was registered in the name of Ch Suryanarayana Raju, a gardener working in the mango orchards of Raju brothers at a monthly salary of Rs 5,000. When the ED sleuths quizzed this gardener on his source of income, he revealed that the land was purchased by the Raju brothers through SRSR Holdings company and the sale deeds and other papers were also lying with them.
“They have just used my name and the question of my paying income tax for this amount does not arise because this is not my income and I never filed any IT returns nor do I possess a PAN card,” the gardener told the ED authorities. Interestingly, after this purchase, the Raju brothers made this gardener a director in several of their fictitious companies floated for holding the land.
The same is the case with K Venkatapathi Raju, another gardener in whose name 54 acres were purchased and M V Suryanarayana Raju, a garden supervisor whose name was used for registering a 56-acre land. Likewise, S V Samba Murthy Raju, a truck driver working with the Rajus has 53 acres of land registered against his name.
Samba Murthy Raju was also made director of two companies, Sahayadri Green Lands Company and Devagarbha Agros. The EDs Hyderabad Zone authorities had attached all these properties.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Satyam scam is of over Rs.14,000 crore: CBI
Hyderabad: The accounting scam at Satyam Computer Services is to the tune of Rs.14,000 crore (Rs.140 billion/$2.8 billion) and not Rs.7,800 crore (Rs.78 billion) as the company's disgraced former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju stated earlier this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said.
The federal agency Tuesday filed a 200-page charge sheet in the special court for CBI cases here that had details of properties acquired by Raju and other accused and their financial transactions abroad through fictitious firms.
'The quantum of scam and the loss suffered by investors has been quantified. The loss suffered by investors works out to over Rs.14,000 crore,' said CBI Deputy Inspector General Lakshminarayana.
The accounting fraud, which shocked India, came to light Jan 7 when Raju quit as Satyam chairman while confessing that he had cooked the company's accounts and inflated profits over several years.
The CBI official said with the filing of the additional charge sheet the agency had completed the probe into the accounting fraud.
The agency, however, is contemplating to file separate charge sheets pertaining to the diversion of funds and the fraud perpetrated by the accused with regard to filing of income tax returns of Satyam.
The additional charge sheet said Raju and the other accused had acquired assets worth Rs.350 crore.
'The huge assets acquired by the accused with the fraud amounts have been identified. A total of 1,065 properties whose documented value is Rs.350 crore have been identified which include around 6,000 acres, 40,000 square yards of housing plots and 90,000 square feet of built-up area,' said a CBI statement.
The accused had also raised loans of Rs.1,220 crore by forging the resolutions of the board of directors, apart from inflating profits by Rs.450 crore by showing fictitious customers, CBI said.
The
statement said the accused falsified the accounts in the matter pertaining to the acquisition of shares of a Hyderabad-based company.
The accused have also resorted to criminal breach of trust in the matter pertaining to declaration and disbursement of dividends. Further evidence collected revealed the role of two statutory auditors in the fraud.
'In the supplementary charge sheet, we have filed the charges under various sections of Indian Penal Code like 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (impersonation), 420 (cheating), 467, 468 and 471 (all pertaining to forgery),' the CBI official said.
The first charge sheet was filed April 7.
In addition to the nine accused, the investigating agency has also levelled charges against internal auditor V.S. Prabhakar Gupta.
Gupta, arrested two days ago, has been charged with breach of trust, forgery, cheating and fabrication of accounts.
'In the supplementary charge sheet, we have cited 301 additional witnesses and nine material objects. We have also filed 1,550 additional documents. With this the quantity of documents in this case has gone up to 55,000,' Lakshminarayana said.
The multi-disciplinary investigation team comprising officials of the CBI, the income tax department, enforcement directorate and the Reserve Bank of India, has also gathered details of Raju's bank transactions in Mauritius.
Raju and his brother and then managing director Rama Raju were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police Jan 9. Former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas was picked up the next day.
Two auditors were also arrested the same month.
The CBI, which began the investigations in February, arrested three executives of Satyam's finance wing in April.
All the accused are currently lodged in Chanchalguda central jail here.
The federal agency Tuesday filed a 200-page charge sheet in the special court for CBI cases here that had details of properties acquired by Raju and other accused and their financial transactions abroad through fictitious firms.
'The quantum of scam and the loss suffered by investors has been quantified. The loss suffered by investors works out to over Rs.14,000 crore,' said CBI Deputy Inspector General Lakshminarayana.
The accounting fraud, which shocked India, came to light Jan 7 when Raju quit as Satyam chairman while confessing that he had cooked the company's accounts and inflated profits over several years.
The CBI official said with the filing of the additional charge sheet the agency had completed the probe into the accounting fraud.
The agency, however, is contemplating to file separate charge sheets pertaining to the diversion of funds and the fraud perpetrated by the accused with regard to filing of income tax returns of Satyam.
The additional charge sheet said Raju and the other accused had acquired assets worth Rs.350 crore.
'The huge assets acquired by the accused with the fraud amounts have been identified. A total of 1,065 properties whose documented value is Rs.350 crore have been identified which include around 6,000 acres, 40,000 square yards of housing plots and 90,000 square feet of built-up area,' said a CBI statement.
The accused had also raised loans of Rs.1,220 crore by forging the resolutions of the board of directors, apart from inflating profits by Rs.450 crore by showing fictitious customers, CBI said.
The
statement said the accused falsified the accounts in the matter pertaining to the acquisition of shares of a Hyderabad-based company.
The accused have also resorted to criminal breach of trust in the matter pertaining to declaration and disbursement of dividends. Further evidence collected revealed the role of two statutory auditors in the fraud.
'In the supplementary charge sheet, we have filed the charges under various sections of Indian Penal Code like 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (impersonation), 420 (cheating), 467, 468 and 471 (all pertaining to forgery),' the CBI official said.
The first charge sheet was filed April 7.
In addition to the nine accused, the investigating agency has also levelled charges against internal auditor V.S. Prabhakar Gupta.
Gupta, arrested two days ago, has been charged with breach of trust, forgery, cheating and fabrication of accounts.
'In the supplementary charge sheet, we have cited 301 additional witnesses and nine material objects. We have also filed 1,550 additional documents. With this the quantity of documents in this case has gone up to 55,000,' Lakshminarayana said.
The multi-disciplinary investigation team comprising officials of the CBI, the income tax department, enforcement directorate and the Reserve Bank of India, has also gathered details of Raju's bank transactions in Mauritius.
Raju and his brother and then managing director Rama Raju were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police Jan 9. Former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas was picked up the next day.
Two auditors were also arrested the same month.
The CBI, which began the investigations in February, arrested three executives of Satyam's finance wing in April.
All the accused are currently lodged in Chanchalguda central jail here.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Ramalinga Raju stable in intensive care unit
8 Sep 2009,
HYDERABAD: Disgraced founder of Satyam Computer Services Ltd B Ramalinga Raju remained in the intensive care unit of a government-run hospital Tuesday after he suffered a cardiac arrest in a jail here. His condition is said to be stable.
Raju, who was in Chanchalguda Jail along with seven other accused in connection with the Rs.78 billion ($1.43 billion) accounting fraud in Satyam, was given first aid by the jail authorities after he complained of chest pain Monday evening. He was then shifted to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).
Doctors conducted various tests on him and some of the reports are expected later Tuesday, hospital officials said.
Resident Medical Officer of NIMS M Srinivas told reporters that the cause of the pain would be known after the reports of all the tests were fully evaluated.
Srinivas said the former Satyam boss was undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit and his condition was stable.
Raju's lawyer Bharat Kumar, however, claimed that Raju suffered a heart attack. According to him, Raju has a block in his arteries but the same could not be removed as he is also suffering from Hepatitis C.
Raju, who will turn 55 Sep 15, has been lodged in jail since Jan 9, two days after he shocked the corporate world by admitting to a Rs 78 billion accounting fraud in the IT major.
Raju's brother B Rama Raju, chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas, three other employees of Satyam and two auditors are also in jail.
They have been charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy and are being tried for the same.
Following Rajus's confession, the government appointed a board to run Satyam, one of India's leading IT companies. The company was bought by Tech Mahindra in April and renamed Mahindra Satyam.
HYDERABAD: Disgraced founder of Satyam Computer Services Ltd B Ramalinga Raju remained in the intensive care unit of a government-run hospital Tuesday after he suffered a cardiac arrest in a jail here. His condition is said to be stable.
Raju, who was in Chanchalguda Jail along with seven other accused in connection with the Rs.78 billion ($1.43 billion) accounting fraud in Satyam, was given first aid by the jail authorities after he complained of chest pain Monday evening. He was then shifted to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).
Doctors conducted various tests on him and some of the reports are expected later Tuesday, hospital officials said.
Resident Medical Officer of NIMS M Srinivas told reporters that the cause of the pain would be known after the reports of all the tests were fully evaluated.
Srinivas said the former Satyam boss was undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit and his condition was stable.
Raju's lawyer Bharat Kumar, however, claimed that Raju suffered a heart attack. According to him, Raju has a block in his arteries but the same could not be removed as he is also suffering from Hepatitis C.
Raju, who will turn 55 Sep 15, has been lodged in jail since Jan 9, two days after he shocked the corporate world by admitting to a Rs 78 billion accounting fraud in the IT major.
Raju's brother B Rama Raju, chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas, three other employees of Satyam and two auditors are also in jail.
They have been charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy and are being tried for the same.
Following Rajus's confession, the government appointed a board to run Satyam, one of India's leading IT companies. The company was bought by Tech Mahindra in April and renamed Mahindra Satyam.
Former Satyam chief Ramalinga Raju suffers heart attack
8 Sep 2009, ET Bureau
HYDERABAD: B Ramalinga Raju, former chairman of scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services , was admitted to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), following a heart on Monday evening.
Raju was lodged in the Chanchalguda prison in January 9 this year, two days after he confessed to perpetrating a Rs 7,000-crore fraud at Satyam.
According to his lawyer Bharat Kumar, Raju suffered a heart attack at around 4.30 pm and his condition was serious when he was shifted to the hospital. “He was taken twice to NIMS over the past 10 days for treatment of type C Hepatitis. A medical board constituted by the state government examined him and recommended treatment for a couple of months. He had blocks in his arteries, but was unable to take medicines as he was suffering from liver disorder,” said Bharat Kumar.
Several applications for bail were rejected by the lower court and the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The CBI, which filed a charge sheet, also moved a petition to conduct lie-detector and polygraph tests. But Raju moved a counter-petition , challenging the validity of these tests. A lie-detector test cannot be conducted on a person who has a critical ailment.
Raju was shifted late Monday evening from the Chanchalguda jail to NIMS. His brother B Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani are also lodged in the same prison for conspiring in the same fraud.
HYDERABAD: B Ramalinga Raju, former chairman of scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services , was admitted to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), following a heart on Monday evening.
Raju was lodged in the Chanchalguda prison in January 9 this year, two days after he confessed to perpetrating a Rs 7,000-crore fraud at Satyam.
According to his lawyer Bharat Kumar, Raju suffered a heart attack at around 4.30 pm and his condition was serious when he was shifted to the hospital. “He was taken twice to NIMS over the past 10 days for treatment of type C Hepatitis. A medical board constituted by the state government examined him and recommended treatment for a couple of months. He had blocks in his arteries, but was unable to take medicines as he was suffering from liver disorder,” said Bharat Kumar.
Several applications for bail were rejected by the lower court and the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The CBI, which filed a charge sheet, also moved a petition to conduct lie-detector and polygraph tests. But Raju moved a counter-petition , challenging the validity of these tests. A lie-detector test cannot be conducted on a person who has a critical ailment.
Raju was shifted late Monday evening from the Chanchalguda jail to NIMS. His brother B Rama Raju and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani are also lodged in the same prison for conspiring in the same fraud.
YSR Death: Who's going to save Ramalinga Raju?
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Hyderabad, Sep 3: With the death of the 'son of soil', AP Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy there were scores of people who were heartbroken.
Buzz up!However, the people who will truly mourn the Chief Minister's death will not just be limited to farmers, party members and workers, as the ex-CEO of Satyam Computers, Mr Ramalinga Raju too may have to join the mourning.
When the Satyam Computers fraud came out in the open, it was a popularly debated fact if YSR was shielding the architect behind the epic Rs 7,800 crore scam.
During this period, YSR faced criticism for supporting and protecting Ramalinga Raju. While his request for the CBI probe into to scam was seen as an effort to protect Ramalinga Raju, his government constantly became the victim of scathing attacks of leaders and the public.
So, now the question is will the demise of YS Rajashekhara Reddy have an impact on Ramalinga Raju and his accomplices, and how?
Hyderabad, Sep 3: With the death of the 'son of soil', AP Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy there were scores of people who were heartbroken.
Buzz up!However, the people who will truly mourn the Chief Minister's death will not just be limited to farmers, party members and workers, as the ex-CEO of Satyam Computers, Mr Ramalinga Raju too may have to join the mourning.
When the Satyam Computers fraud came out in the open, it was a popularly debated fact if YSR was shielding the architect behind the epic Rs 7,800 crore scam.
During this period, YSR faced criticism for supporting and protecting Ramalinga Raju. While his request for the CBI probe into to scam was seen as an effort to protect Ramalinga Raju, his government constantly became the victim of scathing attacks of leaders and the public.
So, now the question is will the demise of YS Rajashekhara Reddy have an impact on Ramalinga Raju and his accomplices, and how?
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