MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--India's federal probe agency investigating the accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (500376.BY) Tuesday filed additional charges of cheating and forgery against 10 people after further investigations.
The Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement it is also considering filing separate chargesheets pertaining to the diversion of Satyam Computer Services funds and "the fraud perpetrated by the accused with regard to filing of tax returns of Satyam Computers as these acts amount to distinct offenses."
In April, the CBI had filed cheating and forgery charges against nine accused--former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, former managing director B. Rama Raju, former chief financial officer S. Vadlamani, auditors S. Gopalakrishnan and S. Talluri, B. Suryanarayana Raju, G. Ramakrishna, D. Venkatapathy Raju and Srisailam.
The CBI named the company's global head of internal audit--V S Prabhakar Gupta--as the tenth accused in the additional chargesheet for "willful suppression of auditing irregularities", in a filing before a court in southern Indian city of Hyderabad Tuesday.
Prabhakar Gupta was arrested on Nov. 21 and is in judicial custody. His lawyer couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
All other accused have been in custody since soon after the financial scandal came to light early January.
In a 200-page supplementary chargesheet submitted against all ten, and citing 301 witnesses and supported by 1,549 additional documents, the CBI said that the accused created fake customer identities and generated fake invoices against their names to inflate revenue by about INR4.30 billion.
"The accused have forged the board resolutions and unauthorisedly obtained loans/advances to the tune of INR12.20 billion in the name of Satyam Computers," the CBI said in a statement.
The accused used the amounts raised by fraud to acquire property worth INR3.50 billion, CBI said.
"The accused have also resorted to criminal breach of trust in the matter pertaining to declaration and disbursement of dividends," the CBI said.
Lawyers for Ramalinga Raju, Rama Raju, Vadlamani, Gopalakrishnan and Talluri said they haven't yet received a copy of the additional charges and will respond only upon receiving the copy.
S. Bharat Kumar, lawyer for Ramalinga Raju, expects to receive a copy of the charges in a week. "The accused could face maximum imprisonment of 14 years if the charges are proved," Kumar said.
Lawyers for B. Suryanarayana Raju, G. Ramakrishna, Venkatapati Raju and Srisailam couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
A Satyam spokesperson said that company will "cooperate with the investigations".
Satyam Computer Services was embroiled in an accounting scandal after its founder B. Ramalinga Raju admitted in January that he overstated the software exporter's profits and created a fictitious cash balance of more than $1 billion.
Since the scandal broke out, a government-appointed board sold a majority stake in the company through an auction to Tech Mahindra Ltd. (532755.BY). The company holds a 42.7% stake in Satyam Computer Services.
-By Romit Guha, Nupur Acharya & Ameya Karve, Dow Jones Newswires; +91-99675-86928; romit.guha@dowjones.com
