Satyam's Rs 5,000 cr cash vanished in a quarter

Bank statements show that Satyam had funds of over Rs 5,000 crore as of September 2008, but by January 2009 when company founder Ramalinga Raju admitted to fudging accounts the IT firm could have been left with just Rs 200 crore of maturable fixed deposits.

The scam-tainted firm had short-term or long-term fixed deposits of over Rs 3,300 crore, and another Rs 300 crore of accrued interest, in addition to current account deposits of over Rs 1,800 crore, as per the last auditing done by Price WaterHouse for the quarter ending September 2008.

The company is believed not to have made any term deposit after mid-February 2007, though it did make a few short-term or margin money deposits, amounting to about Rs 10 crore till September 2008.

The auditing was done on the basis of statements sent by a host of banks detailing the fixed long-term deposits, along with maturity, ranging between October 2008 and February 2009.

With such a cash and deposits position, the IT company should not have had any worry on the cash front and a concern to mobilise resources for the payment of salaries to staff.
    
In his statement on January 7, Raju had said that he was disclosing the manipulation of accounts after failing in his last-ditch effort to salvage Satyam through acquisition of the two Maytas firms on December 16.
    
However, the bank statements, on which PWC relied for the auditing, reveal that more than 90 per cent of the total deposits had matured by January 7.