HYDERABAD: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said V Srinivas, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and two former auditors of the crisis-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd., now rebranded as Mahindra Satyam, were found guilty. The apex body also said members of Satyam’s internal audit cell were found guilty of professional misconduct and failure to perform their duties.
A high-powered panel constituted by ICAI has, prima facie, found Satyam’s statutory auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) -- S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri - and members of internal audit cell P Sivaprasad, Ch Ravindranath, V S Prabhakara Rao and V Srinivas, CFO, were found guilty of professional misconduct.
The five-member disciplinary committee, which submitted its report on September 23, found PwC guilty of professional misconduct.
ICAI said it would issue notices to all those found guilty for their written statements, which are to be submitted within 30 days.
However, sources in ICAI said the official process to close the case would take time considering the unavailability of respondents.
“Satyam’s CFO and the two external auditors of the company are under judicial custody and unless they are given a chance to defend themselves, we can’t deliver the judgement,” a council member told Express. He added ICAI is exploring alternate options to gain access and thereby provide an opportunity to respondents. It must be noted that ICAI had earlier found Gopalakrishnan as guilty in the Global Trust Bank accounting fraud and has removed him from all non-standing committees.
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