A few weeks ago, an anonymous group calling themselves ‘ethical employees’ sent a complaint to the Infosys Board of Directors and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the people that regulate stock markets in the US) accusing the Infosys CEO and CFO of fudging financials and lying to investors about said fudging. This obviously did not go down well with anybody and the company’s share price tumbled.
And just when people were beginning to think the whole episode was behind them, another whistleblower has entered the mix.
In an unsigned and undated letter, the whistleblower, claiming to work in the company’s finance department accused CEO Salil Parekh of violating the company’s value system.
Yes… The Value System.
The letter states that even though policies require the CEO to live in Bengaluru, Parekh actually lives in Mumbai and travels to Bengaluru twice a month, charging Infosys Rs. 22 lakhs in travel expenses. So the question is?—?why did the board give him a free pass and why are they not demanding that he work out of Bengaluru. The whistleblower also goes on to argue that since Infosys expects its employees to bear their own travel expenses, it’s only right that the same be asked of the CEO.
I am not sure if this matter is as grave as lying about company financials. But yeah, that’s the contention here. Make of that what you will.
Now it’s important to note that there have been whispers about the authenticity of these letters since the first one became public. More so, because there were large bets being made predicting a sudden crash in share price a few days before the letters were dispatched. Strange coincidence that, don’t you think? And people are now beginning to speculate if all this is simply a ruse to get investors to sell Infosys stocks en masse. Is it possible that the CEO and CFO are simply being made scapegoats?
Well, we don’t know. I guess we will just have to wait for the audit committee to finish its review. Until then we hope the letters take a backseat.
This article was originally published on Finshots