Satyam barred from doing biz with World Bank

The World Bank has barred India's Satyam Computer from doing business with it for eight years on the charges of data theft, a Bank official said on Tuesday.

"The information is true... quotes about the World Bank on Fox News channel are correct," the Bank's spokesperson in India told PTI when asked about the US media reports on the debarment.

The development comes at a time when the company is facing a probe back home over an abortive acquisition deal involving two firms promoted by Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju's family.

The World Bank debarment -- the harshest sanction the world's largest anti-poverty agency has imposed on any company since 2004 -- was meted out for "improper benefits to bank staff" and "lack of documentation on invoices", said a Fox News report, quoting Robert Van Pulley, the top World Bank information security official.

Satyam had announced a $1.6 billion deal to acquire two firms -- Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties -- promoted by Raju's family and withdrew it within hours after shareholders' dissent.

This was followed by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India and the government saying that it would look into the matter.

Months after "stonewalling and denying" reports that Satyam has been barred from doing any business with the bank for eight years, a top World Bank official has admitted that Satyam -- one of its technology vendors -- was barred in February and the ban has already started in September, the Fox News report said.