B. Ramalinga Raju, the founder and former head of Satyam Computer Services may have skimmed huge amounts of cash from the company, rather than padded its books as he claims, according to a report in the New York Times that cited a person involved in the Satyam investigation.Satyam, India’s No. 4 software services exporter, has been battling for survival since Raju resigned as chairman earlier this month, revealing profits had been falsified for years and that $1 billion of cash on the books did not exist.
Investigators looking into the fraud have found a maze of about 300 companies related to Raju that were used to siphon as much as $1 billion in cash from Satyam, the report said, citing a senior official involved in the inquiry.
The article said the picture emerging from the investigation of Satyam is very different from the one painted by Raju in a letter to Satyam’s board earlier this month.A spokesman for Satyam declined to comment on the report.The report said Raju’s lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.