Passing its final order on the multi-crore accounting Satyam computer scam, market watchdog Sebi on Tuesday barred Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, four other executives from capital markets for 14 years.

Sebi has asked them to return unlawful gains of Rs 1,849 crore with interest. The regulator has also said that the penalty must be paid within 45 days starting July 15 with 12 percent interest per year.

Satyam executives musi pay the interest from January 2009 till date, Sebi said.

Touted as the country’s biggest accounting fraud, the scam came to light on January 7, 2009, after Ramalinga Raju confessed to manipulating his company’s account books and inflating profits over many years to the tune of several crores of rupees.

Raju was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh Police two days later along with his brother.

In February that year, CBI took over the investigation and filed three charge sheets (on April 7, 2009, November 24, 2009 and January 7, 2010), which were later clubbed into one.

Raju and others were charged with offences ranging from cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery, breach of trust under relevant sections of IPC by way of inflating invoices and incomes, account falsification, faking fixed deposits, besides allegedly falsifying returns through violation of various I-T laws.

Raju later retracted his confession statement and contended that all charges levelled by the CBI are false.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd later merged with Tech Mahindra. 

With PTI Inputs