Not received any request from Sebi for conducting audit, says Infosys

Shares of Infosys closed 0.2% down at Rs 782.95 apiece at the BSE on Friday

IT services major Infosys on Friday dismissed reports that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had ordered a forensic audit of company’s books. In an exchange filing, the firm said it had not received any such order from the market regulator.

“The company continues to cooperate with regulatory authorities. It has not received any request from Sebi to conduct further audits as reported by media on January 23,” Infosys said in the filing.

Earlier, some media reports suggested that Sebi was set to order a forensic audit into Infosys’ books following whistleblowers’ allegations after the company’s internal audit committee gave a clean chit to the management, including chief executive officer and chief financial officer, on January 10.

In a letter dated September 20, an anonymous group calling itself as ‘Ethical Employees’ had alleged that Infosys’ current management was taking ‘unethical’ steps to inflate short-term revenue and profit. Subsequently, the Bengaluru-headquartered firm had lost around Rs 53,000 crore (close to $7.5 billion) as the stock crashed about 16 per cent in October.

However, an internal investigation assisted by independent legal counsel Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found the “allegations are substantially without merit”.
 

Currently, Sebi, the National Financial Reporting Authority, and US SEC are looking into various aspects of the whistleblower’s allegations.

Shares of Infosys closed 0.2 per cent down at Rs 782.95 apiece at the BSE on Friday.