Raju cleaned out bank account before fraud

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
16th jan 2009
Satyam Computers’ ex-chairman, Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, withdrew all the money from his and his family’s personal accounts, even as it turned out that Satyam had no fixed deposits with ICICI Bank.
The non-existent fixed deposits were the foundation of Satyam’s muchhyped Rs 8,000-crore cash reserves.
As of Thursday, Mr Raju had Rs 6,184 in his account with HDFC Bank’s main branch at Lakdikapul. Two other accounts in his name hold no money.
According to sources in the CID, Mr Raju and his family members, Mr B. Rama Raju, Ms B. Radha Raju, Ms B. Nandini, and Ms B. Deepti hold 16 accounts in HDFC Bank. Only Ms Deepti holds a fixed deposit worth Rs 2.5 lakh.
One of the accounts has Rs 3,559, according to CID officials who are probing Mr Raju’s Rs 8,000 crore scam at Satyam. Some of the accounts actually show an overdraft. “We were shocked to see that their accounts were emptied,“ a CID officer told this newspaper. “We are tracing how the money moved in and out of the accounts. These details began coming out as the CID and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office experts began going through the bank accounts of Satyam and its promoters in various banks.
Police is also trying to track down another 40 accounts of Mr Raju and his family in different banks.
Sources said ICICI Bank had informed the police that the Satyam had no fixed deposits with them. The company has a current account and salary accounts of staff with the bank.
Mr Raju has claimed in his January 7 confession that he had shown fictitious bank deposits while cooking Satyam accounts. Police now suspects that the bank deposit certificates put up by Satyam were fake.
An investigating official said, “Satyam had produced some documents showing that it had bank deposits. We have to verify whether these certificates issued by banks are genuine or forged.” “If the bank certificates are forged, then bankers would have had no role,” the officer said. “But the auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be faulted as they did not crosscheck documents.” If the certificates are genuine, the auditors cannot be faulted, the official explained. Satyam could have deposited the money temporarily, collected certificates and then withdrawn the money. Even in that instance, the investigators will clear the bankers. The focus then will be on the Satyam promoters.
Investigators are also checking the tax deduction at source (TDS) certificates issued by banks on the interest earned on deposits.