Satyam scandal

The Satyam Computer Services, scandal was a corporate scandal affecting India-based company Satyam Computer Services in 2009, in which chairman Raymalinga Raju confessed that the company's accounts had been falsified.

History

On 7 January 2009, the chairman of Satyam, Ramalinga Raju, resigned, confessing that he had manipulated the accounts by US$1.47-Billion. The global corporate community was said to be shocked and scandalised.

In February 2009, CBI took over the investigation and filed three partial charge sheets (dated 7 April 2009, 24 November 2009, and 7 January 2010), over the course of the year. All charges arising from the discovery phase were later merged into a single charge sheet.

On 10 April 2015, Ramalinga Raju was convicted with 10 other members.

Role of Auditors

PricewaterhouseCoopers affiliates served as independent auditors of Satyam Computer Services when the report of scandal in the account books of Satyam Computer Services broke. The Indian arm of PwC was fined $6 million by the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) for not following the code of conduct and auditing standards in the performance of its duties related to the auditing of the accounts of Satyam Computer Services.^[1]

Aftermath

Raju had appointed a task force to address the Maytas situation in the last few days before revealing the news of the accounting fraud. After the scandal broke, the then-board members elected Ram Mynampati to be Satyam's interim CEO. Mynampati's statement on Satyam's web site said:

"We are obviously shocked by the contents of the letter. The senior leaders of Satyam stand united in their commitment to customers, associates, suppliers and all shareholders. We have gathered together at Hyderabad to strategize the way forward in light of this startling revelation."

On 10 January 2009, the Company Law Board decided to bar the current board of Satyam from functioning and appoint 10 nominal directors. "The current board has failed to do what they are supposed to do. The credibility of the IT industry should not be allowed to suffer." said Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta. Chartered accountants regulator ICAI issued show-cause notice to Satyam's auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on the accounts fudging. ICAI President Ved Jain said: "We have asked PwC to reply within 21 days."

Also on 10 January 2009, the same day, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) team picked up Vadlamani Srinivas, Satyam's then-CFO, for questioning. He was arrested later and kept in judicial custody.^[2]

On 11 January 2009, the government nominated noted banker Deepak Parekh, former NASSCOM chief Kiran Karnik, and former SEBI member C Achuthan to Satyam's board.

Analysts in India have termed the Satyam scandal India's own Enron scandal.^[3] Some social commentators see it more as a part of a broader problem relating to India's family-owned corporate environment.^[4]

Immediately following the news, Merrill Lynch (now a part of Bank of America) and State Farm Insurance terminated its engagement with the company. Also, Credit Suisse suspended its coverage of Satyam.. It was also reported that Satyam's auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will be scrutinised for complicity in this scandal. SEBI, the stock market regulator, also said that, if found guilty, its license to work in India may be revoked.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Satyam was the 2008 winner of the coveted Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance under Risk Management and Compliance Issues,^[10] which was stripped from them in the aftermath of the scandal.^[11] The New York Stock Exchange has halted trading in Satyam stock as of 7 January 2009.^[12] India's National Stock Exchange has announced that it will remove Satyam from its S&P CNX Nifty 50-share index on 12 January.^[13] The founder of Satyam was arrested two days after he admitted to falsifying the firm's accounts. Ramalinga Raju was charged with several offences, including criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, and forgery.

Satyam's shares fell to 11.50 rupees on 10 January 2009, their lowest level since March 1998, compared to a high of 544 rupees in 2008.^[14] On the New York Stock Exchange, Satyam shares peaked in 2008 at US$29.10. By March 2009, they were trading around US$1.80.

The Indian Government has stated that it may provide temporary direct or indirect liquidity support to the company. However, whether employment will continue at pre-crisis levels, particularly for new recruits, is questionable .^[15]

On 14 January 2009, Price Waterhouse, the Indian division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, announced that its reliance on potentially false information provided by the management of Satyam may have rendered its audit reports "inaccurate and unreliable".^[16]

On 22 January 2009, CID told in court that the actual number of employees is only 40,000 and not 53,000 as reported earlier and that Mr. Raju had been allegedly withdrawing ₹200 million (US$3 million) every month for paying these 13,000 non-existent employees.^[17]

The Indian government designated A. S. Murthy to become the new CEO of Satyam effective 5 February 2009. Special advisors were also appointed, Homi Khusrokhan of Tata Chemicals and Chartered Accountant Partho Datta.^[18][19]

On 4 November 2011, the Supreme Court granted bail to Ramalinga Raju, as well as two others accused in the scandal, since the investigation agency CBI had failed to file a charge sheet, despite having already had 33 months (from the time of Raju's arrest) to do so.

On 15 September 2014, the special CBI court hearing the case asked the concerned parties to appear before the court on 27 October 2014. Date of judgement was to have been indicated later on that day.

On 9 April 2015, Raju and nine others were found guilty of collaborating to inflate the company's revenue, falsifying accounts and income tax returns, and fabricating invoices, among other findings, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by Hyderabad court. Raju and his brother were also fined by the court 55 million rupees (US$883,960) each.^[20]

Acquisition by Mahindra Group

On 13 April 2009, via a formal public auction process, a 46% stake in Satyam was purchased by Mahindra & Mahindra owned company Tech Mahindra, as part of its diversification strategy. Effective July 2009, Satyam rebranded its services under the new Mahindra management as "Mahindra Satyam". After a delay due to tax issues^[21][22] Tech Mahindra announced its merger with Mahindra Satyam on 21 March 2012, after the board of two companies gave the approval.^[23][24] The companies are merged legally on 25 June 2013.^[25][26]

See also

• Corruption in India
• Satyam Computer Services
• Tech Mahindra

References

External links

• The Great Satyam robbery
• Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju's statement to the Board
• PricewaterhouseCoopers offices searched in Satyam probe