1. The Indian government represented by the Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said last Friday said that the government will support Mahindra Satyam in resolving class action suits which it is facing in the US.
On the other hand, not only does the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which is probing the accounting scam at Satyam Computer Services Ltd, seem to favour prohibiting Price Waterhouse and its arrested partners S. Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri from auditing any listed Indian firm or intermediary for a “certain period, ” but now SEBI said today that they will fund a domestic investors’ association that has filed a class action suit against Satyam Computers, its former promoters, auditors and directors.
2. Some media reports also suggested that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, like SEBI, was ready to recommend not only banning the PW partners but also the firm from auditing in India. PwC reportedly sent out an internal communication to all its employees dismissing any such possibility. ICAI officials later clarified and said that the CA Act, as it is worded currently, only gives the institute powers to act against individual chartered accountants, not CA firms.
The highlights of the PwC mail are as follows:
