Fraud fallout: Satyam, PwC to pay US authorities $17.5 mn

Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer Services) and its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) agreed to pay a combined $17.5 million to settle US probes into the accounting fraud at Satyam that in 2009 became India's biggest corporate scandal.

Mahindra Satyam will pay $10 million to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it fraudulently inflated revenue, income and cash balances by more than $1 billion over five years, reports CNBC-TV18.

Separately, India-based affiliates of PwC agreed to pay $7.5 million in record settlements of related charges by the SEC and the public company accounting oversight board.

The SEC called its $6 million accord with five PwC affiliates its largest involving a foreign-based accounting firm, while the PCAOB said the $1.5 million payment by two of those affiliates represents its largest civil money penalty.

Satyam founder and former chairman Ramalinga Raju surprised investors in January 2009 when he said the company had overstated earnings and assets for several years.

That revelation caused shares of the software servicing company to plummet. Satyam agreed in February to pay $125 million to settle US shareholder litigation over that decline.