« After Raju, focus now shifts to CFO Vadlamani

In the first half of September, Srinivas Vadlamani suddenly offloaded 92,358 shares of Satyam in the stock market. When quizzed about it, he said that he needed the money because he was building a house and could not manage without liquidating his ESOP holdings. That answer had satisfied curious newshounds then.

However, after the Raju confession, it appears the chief financial officer (CFO) was working hand in glove with him. Did he have an inkling that the bubble could burst? That explains his decision to offload shares.

Incidentally, Ram Mynampati, the new interim CEO of Satyam, had also sold off shares during the time. On Thursday, Vadlamani put in his papers. On Friday morning, there were rumours that he had attempted to take his life. Vadlamani has been on the run for the last couple of days.

“He is not staying at his own house for security reasons,” a friend of the CFO said. The rumours about suicide surfaced the day when SEBI officials , along with sleuths of the Serious Fraud Office, landed in Hyderabad to investigate the books of Satyam.

Now potentially liable to be charged for insider trading, among other things, Vadlamani had accumulated enormous wealth in his long tenure at the company. His colleagues say he-like his boss Raju-also believed that real estate was a great investment idea.

Little wonder then that he pumped in a lot of money into the business. There are also rumours that the CFO has a stake in a real estate venture in Dubai.

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