SFIO to begin Satyam prosecution soon: Khurshid

 The government said on Monday its serious fraud probe arm SFIO will start prosecution proceedings against Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and others this month, as there was sufficient evidence of their involvement in the over Rs 10,000-crore (Rs 100-billion) scam in the IT firm.

"During this month, the SFIO will begin prosecution on those or those areas of company laws that the SFIO is expected to and have been authorised to proceed with," corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid told reporters in New Delhi.

In January this year, Raju had disclosed what became the country's biggest corporate fraud involving over Rs 10,000 crore.

He had, in a letter to Satyam Board, said he had fudged accounts of Satyam Computer and inflated its profit for years. Besides the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, CBI and enforcement directorate are also investigating the scam including siphoning of money by Raju and others.

The SFIO will seek prosecution of Raju, his brother Rama Raju, Satyam's ex-CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, and partners of the company's former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers -- S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri -- would be carried out on 30 charges under different sections of the Companies Act, 1956.

Khurshid said the agency is 'dutifully and diligently' pursuing what it is supposed to do in the Satyam case.

The SFIO had submitted a preliminary report in April.

In August, the SFIO was asked to give supplementary reports on its findings, including an additional report on the money-siphoning angle in the fraud.

The minister, however, said, "We have not been able to track it (siphoning off of money abroad)... so whatever information we have, we have provided to the Enforcement Directorate and CBI."

Earlier sources had said while the SFIO will deal with company law violations, the Central Bureau of Investigation will be acting on five or six charges involving criminal offences under the penal code.

The corporate affairs mnistry has asked the SFIO to initiate prosecution in the Satyam case after obtaining opinion of the Solicitor General, sources said.

Satyam, under the directions of the Company Law Board, was sold to Tech Mahindra and has been rechristened as Mahindra Satyam.