SFIO to check 60 Satyam servers

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
16th jan 2009
‘ SFIO will col- lect details from RBI and Director of ‘ Revenue Intel- ligence on export earnings.
Cyber forensic experts of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) will be checking around 60 servers of Satyam in various spots around the world including London and Budapest.
Satyam has clients in around 65 countries and SFIO officials want to check each server for vital clues. “It is a big task,” said an investigating official.
On Thursday, SFIO sleuths conducted searches in the offices of Satyam at Begumpet and Madhapur. The SFIO team led by the additional director, Mr K.V.S. Singh, also exchanged notes with the Crime Investigation Depart ment team lead by Mr V.S.K. Kaumudi at the office of the director-general of police.
Sources said the documents and other materials seized by the CID team will now be examined by the new auditors, KPMG and Deloitte. An official of Hyderabad Registrar of Companies said that since the ministry of corporate affairs had ordered the SFIO probe under Section 235 and 237 of Companies Act, Satyam would have to allow investigators to access all information.
“The corporate veil has been lifted and there will be no secrecy,” said the source. “Bankers and auditors will have to cooperate too. The client confidentially clause cannot be cited.” SFIO is now focusing mainly on how the ex-chairman, Mr Ramalinga Raju, manipulated balance sheets and whether there was insider trading and diversion of funds. The CID team is meanwhile engrossed in seizing as many as documents of Satyam as possible. SFIO will also be collecting details from RBI and Director of Revenue Intelli gence on export earnings. Meanwhile, the Satyam interim CEO, Mr Ram Mynampati, who is in the United States, told CID investigators who called him up that he would soon come back and cooperate with the probe. Mr Mynampati, who is also facing a probe, told the CID that he went to the US to meet a client.