ED files charge sheets against Raju, 212 others in Satyam case

Enforcement Directorate (ED) today filed a charge sheet against Satyam Computers founder Ramalinga Raju and 212 others, including some firms, for allegedly laundering funds under a "corporate veil" to perpetrate the accounting scam that rocked the business world.
ED filed a bulky prosecution investigation report before the XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate cum Special Sessions Judge here today seeking to "prosecute the accused for the offence of money laundering" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED report said that Ramalinga Raju and the other accused, who have also been probed by CBI, "derived proceeds of crime from the sale and pledge of inflated shares of M/s Satyam Computers and Services Ltd (SCSL)".

The report further noted, "it transpires that the accused resorted to inter-connected transactions, so as to ensure that crime proceeds were distanced from its initial beneficiaries, and laundered the said proceeds under the cover of the corporate veil, with an ulterior motive to project the properties so acquired as untainted ones".
ED also highlighted the modus operandi used by the accused of receiving "bonus shares, shares under Employee Stock Option Schemes and dividends on the inflated shares of M/s SCSL".
The agency has already attached properties worth Rs 1,075 crore in the case.

ED, which operates under Finance Ministry and exclusively deals with violations of foreign exchange regulations and money laundering, is part of the multi-agency probe held into the accounting scam.

ED has also interrogated prime accused Ramalinga Raju, his brother and former Satyam MD, Rama Raju, and the others named in the case.
It had registered a case against the Satyam founder and his family under PMLA, which defines money laundering offences as those involving money derived from any activity connected with the proceeds of crime.
The Act provides for the freezing and seizure of the proceeds of crime.