The Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) on Monday alleged to have found “conniving role” of statutory auditors of Bhushan Steel Limited (BSL) and raised questions about the role of auditors and bank officials in perpetuating fraudulent activities in the Rs 20,000 crore scam.

In a 70,000 page complaint filed by the SFIO at the special court in Dwarka, it alleged how inventory was fraudulently inflated to raise credit from banks. The probe which covered financial years 2013-14 to March 2016-17 showed that the auditors allegedly turned a blind eye to a Rs 6,000 crore decline in stock-in-transit.

The promoters allegedly used more than 150 companies to build a complex web of transactions to carry out the siphoning-off funds to hoodwink the lenders and other investors in the company.

The probe also brought out the “extreme misuse” of the corporate form by the promoters who ran the listed company more like a proprietorship concern reducing corporate governance requirements to formalities on paper, the agency alleged.

The probe found that BSL had “highly knowledgeable” and distinguished experts on its board as independent directors and nominee directors of banks, who allegedly turned a blind eye on the fraudulent activities and financial shenanigans of the promoters. #casansaar (Source - TNN, Times of India)