CBI set to attach 425 more Satyam-related properties
12 Jul 2010
Tightening the screws on Satyam Computer Services founder B Ramalinga Raju and his kin, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is preparing to attach 425 properties spread over 1,224 acres acquired through 31 front companies by the alleged perpetrators of India's biggest corporate scam.
These properties are spread across in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Bangalore and Nagpur, and were acquired by the Rajus by selling their shares in Satyam between 10 April 1999 and 30 June 2005.
Nearly 100 of these properties are worth over Rs3 crore each, J L Negi, Reserve Bank of India general manager, who is with CBI's economic offences wing, revealed on Saturday.
Speaking at a three-day conference of senior CBI officials in Mumbai, Negi said the CBI is in the process of mapping these properties, which will be attached under the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance of 1944. These 425 properties are in addition to the 444 properties spread over 4,533 acres already attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. This takes the total number of properties acquired by the Rajus through fraudulent methods to 935, spread over 5,757 acres.
The CBI has also found that Raju diverted Rs154 crore to unconnected foreign companies like Global Networking Solutions, Infotech Solutions, Alpha Software and Tech Consultant Ltd from 1999 to 2002, which did not reflect in Saytam's books.
For the first time, CBI has given the details of misappropriation of funds and diversion to accounts in British Virgin Islands by Raju. Negi's presentation stated that $666,000 was paid to Medbiquitous Services and that Raju purchased Medbiquitous stock worth $0.001 a share at a premium of $1 per share, which works out to almost thousand times the face value of the stock.
In another disclosure, Negi said that the company's directors were not only given handsome remuneration by Raju, but were given Satyam stock options at a mere Rs2 a share as against the market price of Rs500 per share. (Also see: Satyam directors mere 'rubber stamps': CBI)