Sebi orders forensic audit of Ricoh India's books, bans six individuals

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has ordered a detailed forensic audit of Ricoh India’s books since 2012-13. 

The regulator has also imposed securities market ban on six individuals associated with the company, including its erstwhile managing director and chief executive officers T Takano and Manoj Kumar, respectively. 

The case involves fraud at the Japan-based Ricoh’s Indian arm. Ricoh had disclosed a loss of Rs 11.2 billion in 2015-16 due to alleged falsification of statements. 

Audit firm PWC had done a forensic audit of Ricoh India’s books. Sebi, however, said a more detailed audit is required to ascertain the actual fraud. 

“...it can be seen that Ricoh’s financial health has been deteriorating, and even after the infusion of funds by its promoters, the company has neither been able to become profitable nor is able to meet its financial liabilities,” Sebi said in an order. 

"Also, Ricoh Japan has disclosed the possibility of additional losses from Ricoh India. Therefore, it is quite possible that the fraud is yet to be unravelled, and that it may run deeper than ascertained in the IIT Report / PwC Report."

“There is an urgent need for Sebi to intervene and take steps for determining the full extent of fraud by conducting a detailed forensic audit of the company, covering the years when the fraud is suspected to have started and if required, even beyond that, to protect the interest of the public shareholders as there are no independent directors on the board and 

the parent company seems to have withdrawn support,” the order further said.