File Photo: Founder of Satyam Computer Services Limited B Ramalinga Raju
Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and nine others have been found guilty in one of the country's biggest accounting frauds by a special CBI court.
The scam surfaced in January, 2009, after Mr Raju, the firm's then Chairman, allegedly confessed to manipulating his company's account books and inflating profits over many years.
Mr Raju was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police's Crime Investigation Department two days later after he allegedly confessed to the fraud, along with his brother Rama Raju and others.
All the 10 accused in the case are currently out on bail.
Around 3,000 documents were marked and 226 witnesses examined during the trial that began nearly six years ago.
Beside Ramalinga Raju, the others found guilty in the case are, his brother and Satyam's former Managing Director B Rama Raju, former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas, former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) auditors Subramani Gopalakrishnan and T Srinivas, Raju's another brother B Suryanarayana Raju, former employees G Ramakrishna, D Venkatpathi Raju and Ch Srisailam and Satyam's former internal chief auditor VS Prabhakar Gupta.
Mr Raju and others were charged with offences like cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and breach of trust under relevant sections of IPC for inflating invoices and incomes, account falsification, faking fixed deposits, besides allegedly falsifying returns through violation of various Income Tax laws.
While the CBI accused Mr Raju and the others of cheating, breach of trust by way of inflating invoices and incomes in the first and third charge sheets, the second one dealt with the accused allegedly falsifying returns through violation of various IT laws.
During the trial, the CBI alleged that the scam caused a loss of Rs 14,000 crore to shareholders of Satyam.
In January last year, Ramalinga Raju's wife Nandini Raju and sons Teja Raju and Rama Raju were among 21 relatives of the ex-Satyam boss who were convicted by a Special Court for Economic Offences here for default in Income Tax payment.
Last year, on December 8, Ramalinga Raju, Rama Raju, Vadlamani Srinivas and former director Ram Mynampati were sentenced to six months jail term and fined by the Special Court for Economic Offences in connection with complaints filed by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) for violation of various provisions of the Companies Act.