CBI corroborates Raju's version of Satyam fraud

New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) Founder of India's beleaguered IT
major Ramalinga Raju was honest at least about his dishonest
dealings, with the country's premier investigating agency CBI
finding that balance sheets were inflated by Rs 5,020 crore -
almost the same amount disclosed by the former IT posterboy.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its
chargesheet, said it found that books were first inflated in
fiscal 2001-02. As against the projected cash and bank
balances of Rs 5,160 crore by the end of second quarter of
2008 in the balance sheets of the company, the actual cash and
bank balance was only Rs 139 crore, thereby reflecting a gap
of Rs 5,020 crore.

Satyam had been maintaining deposit and current accounts
with as many as 15 scheduled banks over the years and CBI,
with the help of chartered accountants, had prepared a
comparative picture of cash balances in current account, money
parked in fixed deposits as shown in the balance sheet and the
actual cash available in the current account and the money
available in the FDRs.

"Thus, it is revealed that huge amounts of cash and bank
balances were fraudulently and dishonestly reflected in the
balance sheets of SCSL (Satyam) by the accused, where only
very less amounts of cash and bank balances were actually
available," the CBI said in the chargesheet filed earlier this
month against Raju and eight others.

Raju, in a letter to Satyam's board on January 7, had
mentioned that the balance sheet as of September 2008 carried
non-existent cash and bank balances to the tune of Rs 5,040
crore.

"Thus, the investigation established that the balance
sheets for the second quarter of 2008 had non-existent cash
and bank balances to the tune of Rs 5,020 crore. Similarly,
the non-existent cash and bank balances fraudulently and
dishonestly reflected by the accused in the balance sheets
during the previous years are also established," the CBI
chargesheet said.

It alleged that the current account balances in Bank of
Baroda, New York branch, alone reflected Rs 3,319 crore in
Satyam Computer accounts raising the total cash and bank
balances become to Rs 5,103 crore.

However, the actual cash and bank balances available at
the end of second quarter of last fiscal were only Rs 61
crore, making the difference as Rs 5,042 crore, it alleged.
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