Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju and his brother have been arrested on fraud charges. They include forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy to the tune of $1 billion. The rest of the board’s directors have been fired.
Documents from auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC’s local unit are being examined by the Indian corporate affairs minister.
The company’s stock has plummeted over the last two days as rumors of the pending arrest spread and Raju could not be found. Rumors of the company’s financial officer committing suicide remain unverified.
Shareholders have lost $2.2 billion in wealth from this alleged fraud. The offenses carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Satyam employs about 53,000 people and has offices from the U.S. to the U.K., Brazil and Australia. The company writes software and manages computer systems for large enterprises.
