Satyam names lawyers to fight US class-action suits

HYDERABAD: Hours after briefing a team from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the Rs 7,000-crore financial scam at Satyam Computer Services, the new board named Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as the software firm���s lawyers to handle class action suits in the US.

The new board and new appointees do not have immunity against legal action taken by investors in the US. A clutch of class action suits were filed on behalf of shareholders who bought Satyam���s American Depository Receipts (ADRs), after its disgraced promoter confessed to perpetrating a Rs 7,000-crore financial fraud.

The allegation was that Satyam and its senior executives had violated the federal securities law by issuing false and misleading financial statements.

The SEC team carried out stock-taking on the enormity of the scam at its meeting with the Satyam board on Thursday. This was preceeded by deliberations with senior Sebi officials on Wednesday.