Mahindra Satyam on Tuesday said it has received legal notices for claims totalling Rs. 1,230.40 crore from as many as 37 companies, to whom it has replied terming these claims as “legally untenable.”
“Mahindra Satyam has received legal notices from 37 companies claiming a refund of Rs. 1,230.40 crore (about $265 million), allegedly given as a temporary advance,” the US-listed Indian IT firm said in a regulatory filing here.
“The notices claim the money back to allegedly repay their creditors, some of whom include Maytas Properties Ltd and Maytas Infra Ltd,” said the company, which was earlier known as Satyam Computer and was acquired by Mahindra group’s Tech Mahindra after being hit by a corporate fraud.
“On November 14, 2009, Mahindra Satyam has replied to the legal notices stating that the claims are legally untenable,” the NYSE-listed company said in its filing with the U.S. regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The company further said that the “confession letter dated January 7, 2009, of Ramalinga Raju, former Chairman of the company, also refers to net amount of Rs. 1,230 crore arranged to the Company by the 37 companies.”
After Raju’s disclosure about financial wrongdoings at erstwhile Satyam for several years, the Indian government had superseded the company’s board and later a Company Law Board-monitored bidding process led to Tech Mahindra acquiring control of Satyam.
