Hyderabad, April 6: Satyam Computer Services Ltd and its former auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers along with its Indian affiliates agreed to pay a $17.5 million penalty to settle charges framed on them for overstating the company accounts and unprofessional auditing practices for over five years.
US stock market regulator, in a separate releases said, Satyam Computer Services Ltd agreed to pay $ 10 mln penalty to settle the charges levied against the company for overstating the company’s accounts by more than $ 1-bln over five years.
In January 2009 Satyam Computer plunged into a deep crisis, after B.Ramalinga Raju, founder of the company resigned as its Chairman, admitting to major financial fraud, which was termed the country’s largest corporate fraud.
After scam broke out, the US regulator filed charges at a District Court in Washington,D.C. After the Company Law Board intervention, the Venture Bay Pvt Ltd an arm of Tech Mahindra Ltd taken over the control of the Satyam Computer Services in a competitive bidding process.
Venture Bay holds around 43% stake in Satyam.
Satyam also agreed to hire an independent consultant to evaluate the internal controls the company is putting in place, SEC said. ”The fact that Satyam’s former top officers were able to maintain a fraud of this scale represents a company-wide failure of extreme proportions,” Cheryl Scarboro, chief of the SEC’s foreign corrupt practices act unit, said in a statement.
In a bid to prepare way to merger with Tech Mahindra, Satyam agreed in February to pay $125 million to settle U.S. shareholder litigation over that decline.
