Satyam founder charged

New Delhi - India's federal investigator has filed charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery against the disgraced founder of Satyam Computer Services, B. Ramalinga Raju, and eight others for stealing millions of dollars from the company.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed the charge sheet on Tuesday in a magistrate's court in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad where the company is based, it said in a statement.

Satyam plunged into turmoil following Raju's revelations in January of overstating profits and creating a fictitious cash balance of more than $1bn.

Besides Raju, charges have also been filed against his brother and former managing director B. Rama Raju, former chief financial officer S. Vadlamani, assistant finance manager Srisailam Chetkuru, and auditors S. Gopalakrishnan and S. Talluri. The others charged - B. Suryanarayana Raju, G. Ramakrishna, D. Venkatapati Raju - were executives at a company linked to Satyam.

If convicted, the accused can be jailed for life.

Police arrested the eight not long after the financial scandal came to light in early January.

Other charges filed against them include using a forged document, falsification of accounts and causing disappearance of evidence, the statement said.

The CBI said that it completed the investigation involving 433 witnesses in a record 45 days.

Other government agencies investigating the company include capital markets regulator, SEBI, the registrar of companies, and the serious fraud investigations office.

The magistrate's court is expected to begin pretrial proceedings soon, though no date has been fixed so far.

- AP