Tech major Infosys on Friday said its Audit Committee found no evidence of financial impropriety or executive misconduct.
The panel had looked into the allegations contained in anonymous whistle-blower complaints, conducted an independent investigation and determined that the allegations were substantially without merit, the company said in a stock market filing.
It may be recalled that in October, the Infosys board received anonymous whistle-blower mails raising a bunch of allegations against managing director and chief executive officer Salil Parekh and CFO Nilanjan Roy. Following this, the Audit Committee conducted an investigation with the assistance of independent legal counsel Shardul Amarchand
Mangaldas & Co. and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Infosys’s Audit Committee chairperson D. Sundaram said the committee “determined that there was no evidence of any financial impropriety or executive
misconduct.” The findings of the investigation, the report said, were adopted by the company’s board and the committee concluded that no restatement of previously announced financial state
ments or other published financial information was warranted. Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani said, “I am pleased that after a rigorous investigation, the... committee has found no wrongdoing by the company or its executives. CEO Salil Parekh and CFO Nilanjan Roy are strong custodians of the company’s proud heritage.”
Additional stress Addressing the media, he said, “Our financial team was put under additional stress this time as they have [had] to work on this Audit Committee Report and the Q3 financial results at the same time.” The investigation team conducted 128 interviews with 77 persons, including relevant company personnel. Some 46 people were identified to collect relevant
documents, electronic and forensic data required for investigation. The committee reviewed over 2.1 lakhdocuments and images, to the tune of 8 terabytes of data, for the ninemonth ended September 30, 2019, the statement said.
On the key findings on company matters, the report said the allegations regarding treasury policy were unsubstantiated as the company strictly complied with its treasury policy, without any interference or pressure from either the CEO or CFO. The allegations regarding visa costs and allegations regarding large-deal approvals were also unsubstantiated, it said.
Regarding personal allegations made against Mr. Parekh, the report said that all allegations regarding personal matters of the CEO proved to be without merit.
