Satyam scam: CBI team back from Mauritius, 2nd chargesheet soon

A second chargesheet in the multi-crore Satyam scam will be filed soon as the CBI team probing the case has returned from Mauritius with some bank details from the island nation.

The CBI team had gone to probe the alleged diversion of funds by disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju to the country for further re-routing back in India to the fictitious firms set up by the accused, official sources said.

Funds were re-routed back to India via European countries as "investments" in nearly 300 alleged fictitious companies floated in the name of his relatives, they said.

The CBI, which is probing the Rs 10,000-crore accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services, has found during its investigations that Raju had diverted big amounts to Mauritius -- a tax haven --from where the money was brought back to India via several European countries, sources said.

CBI sources said this would help the agency in filing the second chargesheet against the accused which will include some more bank transactions made from the island nation.

They said the amount of Rs 7,800 crore mentioned by the founder chairman of the firm in his "confessional statement" earlier this year was far less then what was emerging out during the investigations.

The second chargesheet may highlight some more financial transaction made by Raju and some of his associates, the sources said.

CBI filed the first chargesheet on April 7 this year.

The sources said the money was routed back to India through some banks in the United Kingdom and the remittances to these banks were made from these tax havens.

Raju is alleged to have transferred the money in several salary accounts into fixed deposits in four banks and transferred them to banks in Mauritius.

The money was ultimately routed through Lakeside Investments and Lakeview Investment companies to front companies, including Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, they said.

The CBI, after filing the second chargesheet, will later travel to the US and probe the transactions made in the current account maintained in Bank of Baroda’s New York branch, and a non-existent balance of Rs 1,733 crore has been found till date.

The CBI has sought help of US authorities to obtain details of accounts of Raju and his kin, believed to be in the Bank of America.

The details of the accounts, after being procured, would be submitted before the court in Hyderabad, sources said.

The CBI, which set up a multi-disciplinary investigation team, including officials from the Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and RBI, has claimed the money involved in the scam is nearly Rs 10,000 crore, more than what was stated by Raju in his confessional note in January this year.