Companies having links with Satyam under SFIO scanner

The net is being cast wider with every company that has done a transaction  with Satyam now coming under the scanner of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which got permission to probe Satyam’s transactions with as many as 250 companies. All the companies will have to divulge information regarding the nature of their business with Satyam, according to Section 240 of The Companies Act, 1956.

“They will be asked to divulge information pertaining to their transactions with Satyam, specifically the amounts in the transactions,” an official of the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) told TOI. Under this, accounts of both Satyam and the companies will be scrutinised to see if they are tallying.

According to an MCA official, though the SFIO has already been given permission to proceed with the investigation, the list of `priority’ companies will have to be drawn up by it. After this, specific sanction will be given to investigate those companies.

“The investigation will be more thorough than an audit,” the official said.

If the SFIO team in Hyderabad, which is now engrossed in the Satyam case is able to even make this list ready, the orders to investigate them will be given in two weeks, the official said.

Though it is not known which of the companies figure in the list, the companies in which Satyam has invested will be the first ones to be targeted.

According to official sources, even state government projects associated with Satyam will be scrutinised. This means that the investigation into the Satyam case might go beyond the earlier calculated time of three months. The investigation was taken up based on the findings of the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Hyderabad, after preliminary inspections. There, discrepancies were found in the transactions that Satyam had with a few companies.

“The RoC had asked for an explanation but the reply from Satyam was not found to be satisfactory. Hence, a broader investigation was ordered,” a senior official said.

An eight-member SFIO team will be constituted first and more teams will be constituted to deal with other companies. Interestingly, under Section 240 of the Companies Act, 1956, up to 2,000 companies can be investigated in relation to any company under investigation and may extend up to four years.