Mobile payments firm Upaid has requested depositions from Satyam executives regarding last week's aborted attempt by Satyam to buy up companies related to its chairman, Ramalinga Raju. Upaid claims this was an attempt to siphon cash out of the business in advance of a US Federal Court jury trial scheduled for June 2009, in which Upaid is seeking up to $1 billion in damages for fraud, forgery and breach of contract by the Indian IT giant.
Upaid filed the motion in Collin County, Texas district court on Thursday last week requesting depositions of Satyam Computer Services' chairman, chief financial officer and global head of corporate governance.
On Wednesday, a shareholder revolt and media criticism caused Satyam to abandon its plans to pay $1.3 billion for 51% of Maytas Properties and $300 million for Maytas Infra, both of which are partially owned by Satyam founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju and his brother, CEO Rama Raju. The Maytas companies - Satyam spelled backward - were also founded by Raju family members.
Upaid claims the transactions were "clearly designed to deplete its assets in advance of a judgment" and that Satyam appears willing to engage in fraudulent transfers to avoid its legal obligations.
The existing case against Satyam filed by Unpaid is for providing it forged documents that were used to get patents in the United States. Satyam maintains its innocence in this matter, and has filed its own counter suit of business disparagement against Upaid.
The motions most recently filed by Upaid are an attempt to counter this business disparagement suit by claiming that Satyam has being doing a fine job all by itself in demonstrating evidence of its poor corporate governance and business practices.
Upaid and Satyam began working together in 1997, but the business relationship soured and the two companies have been in and out of courts since 2002.
The Spicy IP blog has a detailed history of the business relationship and court battles from earlier this year, and an update on the most recent twist.