Markets regulator Sebi has directed B Ramalinga Raju, former chairman and promoter of the erstwhile software services major Satyam Computer, four of his associates, and the investment company of the Raju family, to together disgorge Rs 624.1 crore and interest of about Rs 1,123 crore (Rs 1,747 crore) in perhaps the biggest such order by value.
Raju, the investment company, and the four entities – B Rama Raju, B Suryanarayan Raju, V Srinivas, and G Ramkrishna – were penalized for illegally gaining by manipulating the Satyam stock price about two decades ago.
On January 7, 2009, Ramalinga Raju – then the chairman of Satyam – sent an email to the exchanges disclosing how he headed a multi-year operation to manipulate the books of accounts of the software services major. After a subsequent Sebi investigation, which was followed by two orders by the regulator, Ramalinga Raju and several others were indicted in the case.
The four entities will also have to pay a penal (simple) interest of 12% per annum, from January 7, 2009, till the day of payment. Including the penal interest, the total would add up to about Rs 1,747 crore. Sebi also barred, subject to a nod from the Supreme Court, Ramalinga Raju and Rama Raju from the stock market for five years.
After several cases in the Supreme Court, SAT, and other courts, the current order by Sebi was passed. Another case in the same case is now pending at the apex court, the order by the regulator noted.
Investigations by Sebi in the Satyam affair revealed that these individuals had traded in Satyam shares between January 2001 to December 2008, even as they had in their possession unpublished price-sensitive information about the company’s precarious financial position.
