The Enforcement Directorate (ED) formally sought prosecution at a court here in the Rs 7,200-crore Satyam Computer Services Ltd (SCSL) fraud of company founder B Ramalinga Raju and 47 others, including his kin. And, to proceed likewise against 166 companies under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Prosecution of Raju and others is already on after the Central Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the entire affair.
The complaint filed before the XXI additional chief metropolitan magistrate stated Raju and other accused "derived proceeds of crime from sale or pledge of inflated shares of M/s SCSL. The accused also received bonus shares, shares under employee stock option schemes and dividends on the inflated shares of M/s SCSL and gained wrongfully".

The ED stated its investigation had revealed the "accused resorted to inter-connected transactions so as to ensure that crime proceeds were distanced from its initial beneficiaries and laundered the said proceeds under the cover of corporate veil, with an ulterior motive to project the properties so acquired as untainted ones".

According to the ED, Raju, "his relatives and associate members floated 327 front companies which were used to layer the proceeds of crime". It had also been found that the "accused have purchased movable and immovable properties in their names, in the name of front companies and in the name of their close relatives, associates who were also directors in the front companies".

The ED stated it had attached 350 immovable properties and five "moveable properties" valued at Rs 1,075 crore. It had also taken possession of most of the attached properties.

Last October, the ED stated it had attached Rs 822 crore of fixed that Satyam kept with four banks, in the ongoing case against the company promoter and others. The ED officials had served the attachment orders on Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and ING Vysya Bank pertaining to the FDs.

The agency said its investigation into the Satyam case was still on in India and abroad for "further identification of the proceeds of crime".

The Satyam story began to come out on December 16, 2008, when the information technology company made an aborted attempt to buy Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, floated by the kin of the Satyam founder, for $1.6 billion. The company's reputation reached its nadir when Raju confessed to a years-old accounting fraud on January 7, 2009. Two days later, he was arrested, with his younger brother and managing director of Satyam. A day after, the government stepped in to save the company. The Company Law Board disbanded the Satyam board and on January 11 reconstituted it with three government-appointed members, Deepak Parekh, Kiran Karnik and C Achuthan.

Subsequently, the board appointed Deloitte and KPMG for a restatement of accounts. On January 16, the Satyam board was expanded with the government appointing three more directors, TN Manoharan, Tarun Das and S Balakrishna. On February 5, the new board appointed A S Murthy as chief executive and Homi Khushkoran and Partho Datta as special advisers.

In April, 2009, Tech Mahindra took over Satyam. Subsequently, it renamed the scam-hit company as Mahindra Satyam. Earlier this year, Satyam was merged with Tech Mahindra.
​
On February 16, 2009, the government ordered a CBI probe into the case. The ED had also conducted an investigation. CBI has filed three chargesheets, of 650 pages, with over 3,000 supporting documents comprising 100,000 pages. In all, it named 697 witnesses.

Birla was questioned following a tip-off from Income Tax (IT) department, which has been carrying out searches at the group's premises since January 7, about the overseas financial transactions of the group.


The Enforcement Directorate has questioned Yash Birla, Chairman of Yash Birla Group, in
connection with certain overseas financial transactions, officials in the central agency said today.
Birla was questioned following a tip-off from Income Tax (IT) department, which has been carrying out searches at the group's premises since January 7, about the overseas financialtransactions of the group.
"We have questioned Yash Birla on Sunday. We received information from IT department after which we have questioned him," an ED officer said.
The investigation wing of the Income Tax Department last week conducted searches at about 20 premises of the group in Mumbai and New Delhi for alleged tax evasion.
Searches at a couple of more premises were yet to conducted, they said.
The group's spokesperson could not be contacted today despite repeated attempts for a reaction.
The 150-year-old group with a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore is present in auto, engineering, steel pipes, machine tools, electrical appliances, wellness, lifestyle, etc.

​People have started using our principle of freedom of information as a tool to commit crime,” Lars Minnedal of the Stockholm police fraud unit told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
Since 2002, the number of reported cases of falsified IDs in Sweden has more than doubled, setting a new record in 2012 with 1,496 reported cases. Identity theft is more widespread, with more than 20,000 cases reported in Stockholm alone last year.


Security experts have warned that Sweden may be soon hit with a “fraud epidemic,” as would-be criminals can get all the information they need by making a call to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket).


“The society we live in makes it possible. The problem is that we have a freedom of information principle, and people never thought of how it could be abused in the way it is today,” Minnedal added. “You can access everything on everyone and there’s no requirement to explain what you want to use the information for.”


While Swedish identity documents are equipped with advanced security features, Minnedal lammented that many store clerks and sales people “systematically neglect” to look carefully at ID cards presented to them or lack knowledge of the card’s proper appearance.