Satyam £700 million bank forgery claim

Scandal-hit Indian outsourcing firm Satyam has been accused of forging documents from four banks, including HSBC, to claim a cash balance of $1 billion (£700 million).

Investigators sent Satyam's account-balance statements and letters of confirmation of account balances to officials at HSBC, Citigroup and Indian banks HDFC and ICICI.

Based on the banks' response, investigators have decided the documents were forgeries, according to the Wall Street Journal. The banks would not comment.

Satyam founder and former chairman Ramalinga Raju has been arrested for an alleged accounting fraud that inflated the company's balance sheet over several years.

Investigators are continuing to uncover the extent of the alleged fraud and how it was carried out through a tangle of companies they say were controlled by Raju.

Raju's brother Rama, Satyam's former managing director, has also been arrested.

A bail hearing for the two is expected on Thursday.