The mystry of missing 5000 crore – By Ramalinga Raju (Now on stands)
The mystey of missing 5000 crore – By Ramalinga Raju (Now on stands)
Well it all reads like the latest from Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie. Bank statements show that Satyam had funds of over Rs 5,000 crore as of September 2008, but by January 2009 when company founder Ramalinga Raju admitted to fudging accounts the IT firm could have been left with just Rs 200 crore of maturable fixed deposits. Where the money os gone is a mystry.
as per the last auditing done by Price WaterHouse for the quarter ending September 2008 Satyam had short-term or long-term fixed deposits of over Rs 3,300 crore, and another Rs 300 crore of accrued interest, in addition to current account deposits of over Rs 1,800 crore. The company is believed not to have made any term deposit after mid-February 2007, though it did make a few short-term or margin money deposits, amounting to about Rs 10 crore till September 2008.
The auditing was done on the basis of statements sent by a host of banks detailing the fixed long-term deposits, along with maturity, ranging between October 2008 and February 2009. However, the bank statements, on which PWC relied for the auditing, reveal that more than 90% of the total deposits had matured by January 7. Satyam had a total long-term deposits of over Rs 3,300 crore for maturity during the October- February period, while its short-term deposits to mature till October 2011 were about Rs 10 crore. According to the statements, deposits were largely held with HDFC Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, BNP Paribas and Citibank, while the current accounts were mostly with Bank of Baroda (PW officials are understood to have given these documents to probing agencies to make clear their role while maintaining that they had gone by the book for the purpose of auditing).
It can be recalled that PriceWaterHouseCoopers’ two top officials (PW’s Chief Relationship Partner S Gopalakrishnan and Engagement Leader Srinivas Talluri)were arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police yesterday and it is understood that they have prepared its defence on the basis of these documents, besides foreign exchange earnings and receivables of Satyam, as per the export clearance documents of Software Technology Parks of India.
It can be noted that it would be impossible to forge all the bank statements that were addressed to the auditor but procured by the Satyam management for auditing.
After arrest of its two partners yesterday, the auditing firm said it has fully cooperated over the last fortnight in all inquiries and “has provided all the documents called for by the Indian authorities” and promised continued cooperation.
Tags: PricewaterhouseCoopers, ramalinga raju, satyam computersRelated posts
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