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Satyam’s account cleaning to take 6 months

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — Kiran Karnik, the former president of India’s software industry lobby Nasscom, was named chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., a day after a chief executive officer was appointed to run the fraud-hit company.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office is probing 325 companies and 25 persons linked to Hyderabad-based Satyam, Company Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said in New Delhi today. Also included in the probe is Price Waterhouse, the Indian affiliate of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Gupta said.

Indian police detained Price Waterhouse partners S. Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri on Jan. 24 after Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju said Jan. 7 he had inflated the software provider’s assets by more than $1 billion and quit as chairman. The two partners, suspended from Price Waterhouse on Jan. 27, had audited the accounts of Satyam.

“The SFIO would look into the linkages between all companies and all individuals for their role, diversion of funds and other related issues,” Gupta said. The probe is “heading in the right direction,” he said, without giving any details.

The 350 entities being probed include both listed and unlisted companies, the minister said, without elaborating.

Source /courtesy: TOI