In the Satyam fraud case, a special CBI court on 2nd April 2015 sentenced B Ramalinga Raju, his two brothers, and seven more defendants to seven years in prison. The Satyam Computer Services Ltd. founder and former chairman Ramalinga Raju and his brother B Rama Raju were also fined Rs 5 crore by the court, along with Rs 20–25 lakh for each of the other defendants.
It concerns corporate governance and allegedly dishonest auditing procedures carried out with the help of auditors and chartered accountants. To its board, stock exchanges, regulators, investors, and all other stakeholders, the corporation distorted its financial statements.
It is a fraud that lied about the company’s financial situation in order to deceive the market and other stakeholders. Even fundamental information was greatly exaggerated to portray the business as healthy, including revenues, operational profits, interest liabilities, and cash balances.
Although it would be nearly impossible to distort such data without the auditors and a few executive board members’ complicity, the promoters are the main offenders. It appears that independent directors were not informed of the actual books of accounts.
+ It has also been questioned how effective external third-party auditors have been in ensuring that no financial missteps are made to serve the interests of promoters or conceal facts.
Since 2002, Raju has meticulously recorded meeting and financial information for Satyam.
Raju kept financial data for the most recent year (2008–2009) on a computer server dubbed “My Home Hub.”
A total of two different Internet Protocol (IP) addresses were used to store account information from 2002 until January 7, 2009, the day Raju released his dramatic, five-page confession.
Software programmes like “Ontime,” which are used to calculate an employee’s work hours, were exploited to make fake invoices and bills. A secret application with the ability to hide or show invoices in the system was purportedly placed in the source code of the official invoice management system. This user ID was given the name “Super User.”
A network of 356 investment businesses was reportedly employed to steal money from Satyam and these companies engaged in a number of inter-corporate investments, loans, and advances.
One such business, with a paid-up capital of Rs 5 lakh, invested Rs 90.25 crore and received Rs 600 crore in unsecured loans.
To capitalise on a rising real estate market, the funds raised were utilised to buy hundreds of acres of land throughout Andhra Pradesh.
It created a developing issue because Satyam, which was expanding in scope and size, needed to continue reporting solid earnings.
Written by:
M2254 Shriraj Dharesh Umbarje