Satyam had Rs 3,319 cr bank FDs till Sept 30

NEW DELHI: As government sleuths dig deep into the Satyam quagmire, they have been able to find some of the missing pieces to this sordid jigsaw

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puzzle. Simultaneously , they have also come up with some new revelations that add to the mystery. Here's the latest poser: Was Satyam flush with funds in excess of Rs 3,500 crore till as recently as the Q2 of this fiscal (ending September 30, 2008) and did the company's disgraced former chairman, B Ramalinmga Raju, siphon off the huge deposits in just three months?

Statements from banks, (copies available with TOI) which were also submitted to the company's auditor Pricewaterhouse , show that Satyam had fixed and other short-term deposits totalling around Rs 3,319.17 till September 30, 2008. These deposits, that were further swelled by the approximately Rs 300-crore-odd-plus accrued interest, were with leading banks like BNP Paribas, HSBC, Citibank and HDFC, all of whom confirmed presence of funds in letters to the statutory auditor.

The documents show that Satyam had, in its quarterly audit, given exhaustive details of its FDs to Pricewaterhouse, and these were also validated by confirmations by the banks. The FDs, except for shortterm /margin money deposits, were made for two years and the majority were maturing by January 2 this year, days before the January 7 confessions by Ramalinga Raju.

The documents in the possession of investigators — show that around Rs 800 crore of funds were kept as FD with HSBC along with Rs 95.43 crore in accrued interest in the name of Satyam Computer. In BNP Paribas, deposits were around Rs 468 crore. In Citibank, the FDs were worth Rs 612 crore, while in HDFC, FDs were worth Rs 704 crore. The papers show FDs in ICICI at around Rs 725 crore.

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According to official sources, Pricewaterhouse was presented by this exhaustive list of FDs as well as other short term/margin money deposits by Satyam's erstwhile top brass during the quick audit after July-September quarter), with 'original' supporting bank papers.

The margin money deposits were those that the company kept in banks against the guarantees it gave for Satyam. Importantly, they were confirmed by the banks in letters to Pricewaterhouse, which effectively means that the auditor had independently confirmed their veracity. TOI has copies, though these could not be individually confirmed with the banks.

And, while these confirmations seemingly clear the auditor of any major negligence in its audit process, why did Pricewaterhouse say in a statement a few days ago that its report on Satyam should not be relied upon? A company statement, however, had clarified that it was contingent on the auditor to issue such a clarification regarding an audit if a management admits to a fraud. This is because audits are based on financial statements and books of records produced by the company management.

Sources say that the list of the FD accounts at September end and their disappearance by December-end points to many possibilities. Firstly, it means that the company was flush with huge funds by the end of the second quarter. The guesswork then is that Raju used the three interim months to clean out accounts, though there is no consensus on the modus operandi. '' A possible theory for the missing cash in this case could be that Raju raised cash in lieu of these FDs and diverted the money on their maturity to these lenders," the sources said.

However, one more possibility could be that the erstwhile management forged all these papers, including the independent confirmation receipts of the banks, completely fooling the auditors and the investors at large.