The probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has revealed that not only were promoter directors of Satyam Computer Services Limited (SCSL) manipulating books and accounts since the past eight years, they were also claiming commissions, dividend and doling out incentives to their associates on inflated profits.

As much as Rs 338 crore was paid as “incentive” on the basis of aggregate book profits which was actually not payable, according to the SFIO. When a recast of profit and loss accounts was conducted, it was revealed that even when the company was making a loss in 2007-08, commissions totaling Rs 42.51 lakhs were claimed by promoters.

After a scrutiny of SCSL’s balance sheets for the last eight years and after examining employees on oath, the probe team found that a vast majority of the fictitious receipts were being shown in the Bank of Baroda account in New York.

The report reveals, “On scrutiny of the current account balances obtained from the bank, huge differences were found right from the financial year 2001-02 onwards. It was also learnt that SCSL falsified its books of accounts by showing fictitious non-existent fixed deposits along with accrued interest thereon…”

When the fixed deposits shown in the balance sheet were compared with the actual fixed deposits as per bank confirmations, it was found that SCSL had huge amount of fixed deposits with non-existent interest in five accounts maintained with ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, HDFC Bank, BNP Paribas Bank and Citibank.

Some of the other routes of financial manipulation and falsification listed by the SFIO are:

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