Order on PW auditors' bail petition today

The IV Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court here today posted the orders on the bail petition of Price Waterhouse (PW) auditors to tomorrow.

PW auditors S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri are in jail after being arrested in connection with the Rs 7,800 crore financial scam at Satyam Computer Services. The arguments for the bail petition began yesterday and continued today.

The CBI stressed that the PW auditors conspired with Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, his brother B Rama Raju, and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani, and certified the balance sheets and profit and loss statements, causing financial loss to small investors and shareholders. The auditors have grossly failed in complying with standard auditing practices, which amounts to professional misconduct, according to the CBI.

The PW auditors cannot plead ignorance to the fraud, since they have signed the balance sheets, says the CBI. The CBI, in its petition, said the extended family members of Raju brothers sold their shares at opportune times, that is, when share prices were high, in the first phase of the scam.

Later, to prevent the company from being taken over by other entities, they continued to inflate the balance sheets and ran the company as it was a proprietorship concern, without any concern for corporate governance, it said. Lastly, the core promoters pledged their shares to receive heavy sums of loans, which were used for funding the front companies, said the agency.