Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju sentenced to 6 months in jail.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW DELHI: A court in Hyderabad has fined Krishna Palepu, the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, who also serves as Senior Adviser to the President of Harvard University for Global Strategy, Rs. 2.66 crores (approximately $430,000) after finding him guilty of financial irregularities for his role as a director of Satyam Computers, following complaints filed by India’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in 2009.
Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju was also found guilty of corporate fraud, and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Palepu was ordered to pay the fine within two months, and a non-bailable warrant issued against him, as he was not present in court when the verdict was read out.
Raju confessed to fudging the accounts of Satyam to the tune of Rs.7,136 crore in January 2009, setting off a flight of employees and a wave of client defections, reported Mint. He later disowned his statement during the trial. On Monday, Raju was also fined a total of Rs.10.5 lakh in six different cases filed by the SFIO.
Raju’s brother and former Satyam managing director, B. Rama Raju, and former whole-time director of Satyam, Ram Mynampati, were also handed similar punishment. Former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas was sentenced to six months imprisonment and a total fine of Rs.30,000.
Former Satyam directors Vinod Dham, Mangalam Srinivasan, M. Rammohan Rao, T.R. Prasad, V.S. Raju have been fined Rs.20,000 each.
SFIO filed a total of seven cases for violations in auditing process and Companies Act. The court acquitted the accused in one case relating to the payment of dividends.
The accused have been given a month’s time to appeal against the order.
Other than the economic offences court case, there are at least three other cases pending against Raju. A special court conducting the trial of a complaint filed by CBI is set to deliver its judgment on December 23.
Apart from CBI and SFIO, Raju is also being tried in separate cases filed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and Enforcement Directorate.