Audit major Price Waterhouse filed an appeal in the Securities Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday, challenging an order India’s market regulator issued against it for its alleged role in the multicrore 2009 Satyam scam, PTI reported.
On January 10, the Securities and Exchange Board of India barred Price Waterhouse from auditing any listed company in the country for two years. SEBI also asked the company to pay Rs 13.09 crore, with a 12% interest per annum since January 2009.
The bench barred two former Price Waterhouse partners, S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, from issuing audit certificates to listed companies for three years. Both chartered accountants were in charge of auditing Satyam when the fraud came to light.
Soon after this order, Price Waterhouse said the SEBI order was related to a fraud that took place nearly a decade ago, in which they “played no part and had no knowledge of”. The firm said it was “confident of getting a stay”.
The scam
The Satyam scam was unearthed in 2009, after the then Chairman of Satyam B Ramalinga Raju admitted in a letter to overstating the company’s assets by Rs 5,040 crore. Shareholders lost nearly Rs 14,000 crore as a result.
In 2010, SEBI issued a show cause notice to Price Waterhouse and several other entities. In 2015, a special court in Hyderabad sentenced Raju to seven years rigorous imprisonment. In September 2017, Price Waterhouse had moved a consent plea with SEBI to settle the investigations related to its alleged role in the Satyam scam.
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