SEC clean chit for Infosys in whistle blower allegations of misconduct by top brass

Infosys on Tuesday informed stock exchanges that the US Securities Exchange Commission has concluded its investigations into the whistle blower allegations of October 2019, and that it did not "anticipate any further action by the SEC on this matter."

In its statement, the company said: ""As previously disclosed, in connection with the Audit Committee's investigation into certain whistle blower complaints which concluded in January 2020, the Company cooperated with an investigation by the United States Securities & Exchange Commission ('SEC') regarding the same matters. The Company received notification from the SEC that the SEC has concluded its investigation and the Company does not anticipate any further action by the SEC on this matter."

However, the probe by India's market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India into the whistle blower allegations is still on.

On this, Infosys said: "The Company has also responded to all the inquires received from the Indian regulatory authorities and Company will continue to cooperate with the authorities should there be any additional requests for information."

In October last year, an anonymous group calling itself ‘ethical employees’ had written to the board of Infosys and the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that the company was taking ‘unethical’ steps to boost short term revenue and profits.

The letter accused CEO Salil Parekh of bypassing reviews and approvals for large deals and that he directed employees from the finance team to make wrong assumptions to show margins. It also accused the CFO of being party to such practices.

In January, Infosys Audit Committee gave a clean chit to the management on all counts in the investigation on the allegations made in the whistle blower letter. However, SEC and SEBI began independent probes into the matter.