| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
NEW DELHI : Indian police have arrested two senior officials of global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers over fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, reports said Saturday.
The Press Trust of India and other Indian media said the two officials were taken into custody in connection with the billion-dollar fraud at India's fourth-largest outsourcing firm based in the southern city of Hyderabad.
The arrests came after B. Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam, was arrested earlier this month, days after owning up to the scandal that has shaken corporate India.
Pricewaterhouse audited Satyam's finances and is now being probed by India's accounting board for its failure to detect the fraud.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) and other media identified the two arrested Pricewaterhouse officials as the company's Chief Relationship Partner in India, S. Gopalakrishnan, and Engagement Leader Srinivas Taluri.
A Pricewaterhouse spokesman called the arrests "unfortunate and said it had not seen "any evidence of any wrongdoing" by the men, according to PTI.
"The firm and its related team have fully cooperated with the investigating agencies to provide all the documents called for. Under the circumstances, detention is unfortunate," the spokesman added.
The accounting house had been "shocked by the massive fraud at Satyam and by the elaborate efforts undertaken to conceal the fraud from the board of directors, shareholders and the auditors," the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, Raju remained in custody as investigations continued into his declaration that one billion dollars in cash on the company's books did not exist.
Earlier, India's biggest engineering company Larsen and Toubro almost tripled its stake in Satyam Computer Services to 12 percent, edging closer to a possible takeover bid.
The company now is Satyam's largest single shareholder.
If Larsen hikes its stake further, India's takeover rules oblige it to make a full-scale offer for the company.
Larsen said on Friday the increased stake was aimed at giving it more clout in influencing Satyam's board, while newspapers said the step fired a shot across the bow of rivals in a potential battle to take over the firm.
"By buying 12 percent Larsen and Toubro is now the largest single shareholder in Satyam and therefore entitled to a board seat," Alok Shende, analyst at Ascendia Consulting, was quoted as saying by The Economic Times.
A Larsen and Toubro spokesman told the newspaper the company would make a decision on seeking representation on Satyam's board at "an appropriate time."
"We want to make sure our interests are protected. We have not decided whether to increase the stake further," said Y.M. Deosthalee, chief financial officer of Larsen and Toubro.
Top Larsen and Toubro officials have been lobbying ministers and other government officials to allow the company to buy Satyam, according to Indian media reports.
An acquisition of Satyam could vault Larsen and Toubro, which already runs a fledgling software business through its subsidiary L&T Infotech, into the big leagues of the Indian IT industry.
The company operates in nearly 70 countries and has a blue-chip client list that includes 185 Fortune 500 companies.
Another potential suitor mentioned is TechMahindra, the software company of Indian automobile group Mahindra and Mahindra.
However, any bidders are expected to want a clearer picture of its financial situation and would be wary about legal cases the company faces, notably in the United States.
- AFP /ls
|
