Satyam funnelled crores through hawala: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has established that the Raju brothers were funnelling around Rs12 crore every month from Satyam through hawala. Satyam sent the amount as salaries for over 10,000 fictitious employees abroad.

A senior CBI official told DNA that they have established that Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and his aides were sending out the money.

“They were showing on their books the transfer of Rs12 crore every month as salaries. The transfer for one year was Rs144 crore. This went on for seven years since 2002,” the CBI official said. Investigators established that in the last seven years, around Rs1,008 crore may have been transferred abroad. The money may be parked in the US, England, Mauritius and southeast Asian countries.

Financial investigators from the US are expected here in the first week of August, as investigations spread globally. The CBI has contacted its counterparts in 23 countries.
“The Americans are carrying out their own investigation. In the first week of August, a team is coming to see details of the investigations and how the fraud was carried out,” the official said.  

The sleuths have found that top bosses of Satyam, along with auditors of Price Waterhouse, had forged documents to show that these fictitious employees had filed tax returns. The CBI arrested three auditors who were involved in forging documents and tampering with the firm’s annual balance-sheet.