Ramalinga Raju inflated sales, showed fake bank receipts: ICAI

Revealing the methods of operation in the multi-crore rupee accounting fraud at Satyam Computer, its ex-CFO Vadlamani Srinivas has told the apex accounting body ICAI that the company's sales were inflated and bank statements had been forged to justify the claim.

"He (Vadlamani) told the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India team that they (former Satyam management) only inflated sales. He said they (the firm) have 600-odd major clients, some of whose sales receipts were doubled.

"Then they showed in the (fake) bank statements that they received the money within 90 days," ICAI President Uttam Prakash Agarwal told reporters here.

According to Agarwal, Vadlamani said the whole scam started as an adjustment of Rs 10 crore around five to six years ago and the malpractice continued quarter after quarter before it attained unmanageable proportions in the second quarter of 2008.

"He told us that for many years, they kept the money in a current account. Then in 2006, two analysts asked them that when Satyam has so much cash and bank balance, why did they want to raise funds?

"It was then that Ramalinga Raju (founder and ex-Chairman of Satyam) showed the money as fixed assets instead of bank balance by creating FDR receipts," Agarwal said.