Mobile payment company’s case against IT major gets stronger.
When leading mobile payment solutions provider Upaid said in its recent petition that Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju had a plot in his mind to strip the IT major of the cash surplus to avoid paying damages in a patent infringement case, it was perhaps not aware that there was no cash left in the company even at the time of filing the petition.
But now, at least, the company’s case accusing Raju and his associates of resorting to fraud and forgery in transferring the intellectual property of a piece of software is bound to get stronger.
Upaid, a client of Satyam at one point, has filed a fraud and forgery case in a Texas court, seeking damages of $1 billion for infringement of its patent. The case is likely to come up for hearing in June 2009.
After the Satyam management took up the issue of Maytas acquisition, Upaid approached Collins County court in Texas, further accusing Raju of stripping Satyam of cash reserves to avoid payment of damages and sought the deposition of Raju, Satyam CFO V Srinivas and head of corporate governance G Jayaraman. The case was to come up for hearing on January 7.
Legal experts feel Upaid’s case against Satyam has got stronger after Raju confessed that the company has been fudging its balance sheet for years.
A leading counsel, who represents several corporates in Hyderabad, said, “In a fraud and forgery case, which is tried under criminal laws, the intention of the person (mens rea) for committing such an act is important. The balance sheet fudging and related confession by the management has more or less proved the mens rea aspect. It now becomes easy for Upaid to argue its case and pin down Raju and his associates as individuals will ill intentions. That’s enough in a case of criminal act.”
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