Ramalinga Raju admits to diverting Satyam money to firms promoted by his family
Ramalinga Raju admits to diverting Satyam money to firms promoted by his family
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guilty: Former chairman
of Satyam Computers B R Raju |
Disgraced founder and former chairman of Satyam Computer Services B Ramalinga Raju has confessed that he diverted funds of the IT company to the two real estate firms promoted by his family, state police sources said yesterday.
Raju, who was grilled for the fourth day by officials of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh police, also reportedly admitted using the Satyam money to buy prime land in and around Hyderabad.
CID sources said Raju told interrogators funds were diverted during the past four to five years. This means Raju's January 7 statement that he inflated company accounts was a red herring.
While resigning as company chairman, Raju had admitted to a Rs 7,000 crore accounting fraud, saying the company had cooked its books over several years resulting in inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances.
He reiterated this during CID interrogation soon after his arrest January 9. But investigations have now revealed that a big chunk of this money existed, but was diverted to other firms.
Raju misled auditors too
After a prolonged interrogation, Raju finally admitted to diverting Satyam funds to his family firms Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra. He told CID sleuths that this was going on since 2004.
Raju not only diverted funds out of Satyam, but is also believed to have misled company auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) by submitting fake bank documents.
CID and some regulatory agencies have already seized some documents from PwC. Raju also reportedly swindled money through 6,000 fake salary accounts for last few years.
