Hyderabad: The Satyam scam might just be an unfathomable abyss. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has claimed to have found evidence of new dimensions worth Rs 4,739 crore to the accounting fraud, hitherto estimated at about Rs 7,136 crore.
Going by the investigating agency, the tentacles have spread into other entities, including Nipuna Services (now Satyam BPO).
Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, two other Raju companies, have all along been on the radar for suspected cross transactions.
The CBI has also identified the assets acquired by the prime accused by using the illegal funds drawn from Satyam. According to the agency, a total of 1,065 properties with a total documented value of Rs 350 crore have been identified, including 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 square yards of housing plots and 90,000 square feet of built-up area.
CBI has filed a supplementary chargesheet in a local court in the Satyam case.
"We have completed our investigations into the accounting fraud. We are now working on the fund diversion issue and will file a chargesheet on this very soon," V V Laxmi Narayana, deputy inspector general of CBI, said after formally submitting the 200-page chargesheet to the court. Along with annexures and additional information sheets, the chargesheet runs into about 55,000 pages.
The CBI had filed its first chargesheet on April 7, focusing more on the confessions made by Raju in his letter to the authorities on January 7. After examining the claims made by Raju and finding evidence to some portions of his claims, the CBI investigated further into the case to file a supplementary chargesheet.
The CBI this week arrested V S Prabhakara Gupta, the head of internal audit at Satyam, for his role in the accounting scam. "We are waiting for some information from six countries to go ahead with the fund diversion charges," Laxmi Narayana said.
The charges against the accused include criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust.
The fresh evidence gathered by the CBI points at benefits of about Rs 1,931 crore gained by the prime accused by pledging their shares. But the shocking revelation in the supplementary chargesheet is about the accused forging the board resolution to unauthorisedly raise about Rs 1,220 crore. In fact, in his confession, Raju had talked about an infusion of about Rs 1,230 crore into Satyam and said it was an 'understated liability'. However, Tech Mahindra, the new owner of Satyam, has denied having any such liability since it was never reflected in the books of Satyam. The CBI has also pointed at the benefits accrued to the accused to the tune of Rs 748 crore by sale of shares in the market. According to the CBI, Raju had raised Rs 1,220 crore from some banks by using the forged board resolutions.
Though the Rajus had drawn Rs 230 crore dividend as shareholders, the CBI feels these were also of fraudulent nature. In fact, the issue of dividends to the accused and to the other shareholders is a point examined by the SFIO since the Company Law prescribes that dividends have to be paid out of profits alone and making use of any other fund for dividends would amount to violation of the law. While Satyam was not making enough profits to pay the dividends, the very act of drawing huge funds in the form of dividends amounted to a fraud under the IPC. The company deals with this issue separately under different provisions.
The supplementary chargesheet also talks about the inflation in revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore by generating fake invoices and fake customers and falsifying the accounts of its BPO arm Nipuna.
According to Laxmi Narayana, there is enough evidence to prove the connivance of the jailed Price Waterhouse auditors Srinivas Talluri and S Gopalakrishnan in the entire episode and the agency had also collected fresh evidence on the role of these auditors in falsifying the accounts.
The CBI has so far chargesheeted 10 accused in the case. While B Ramalinga Raju and brother B Rama Raju are still in the jail, younger brother B Suryanarayana Raju is out on bail. The two PW auditors, ex-CFO Srinivas Vadlamani, four senior employees of Satyam -- G Ramakrishna, D Venkatapathi Raju, C Srisailam and V S Prabhakara Gupta -- are all lodged in the central prison.
According to sources, the CBI has recorded the evidence from over 400 witnesses so far and the trial in the case would begin shortly. The CBI has already filed a memo in a local court, asking it to start hearing the charges so that the agency can frame charges on the accused. Though the counsel for the accused sought more time to express their views on the issue of framing charges, the case would come up for further hearing on November 26.


