Satyam's foreign deals under scanner

NEW DELHI: Indian investigating agencies may ask foreign clients of Satyam Computer Services to give details of their transactions to find out if the arrested founder of the scam-hit software exporter had forged invoices.

The government���s specialised agency, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), has asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to get in touch with Satyam���s international clients, said an official involved in the investigation, who did not wish to be named.

Investigators suspect Satyam may have doctored figures showing foreign exchange receipts. Detectives will go through every suspect individual invoice raised against the foreign clients to confirm their veracity, said the official. Satyam has a long list of international clients, which includes big names such as General Electric, ArcelorMittal, Nestle and Qantas Airways.

SFIO suspects forged invoices may have been used by the erstwhile management of Satyam to show lower foreign exchange receipts than what was originally received by them.

ED, an agency of the finance ministry, is empowered under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema). The agency is empowered to collect intelligence inputs relating to any Fema violation and may conduct searches on suspected persons or places.





Various agencies are probing into the Satyam scandal that came into light after the company���s disgraced chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed on January 7 to an accounting scam. Besides SFIO, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Income-Tax department and ED are probing into the scam. SFIO has earlier sought clarifications from 24 domestic clients of Satyam to check the veracity of their documents and invoices.