IN A major relief to former Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) auditors BSR & Associates (a KPMG-affiliated firm) and Deloitte Haskins and Sells, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday quashed criminal prosecution against the auditing companies before a special court in Mumbai. The court quashed the prosecution based on a criminal complaint filed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SHO) against the auditors, who were accused of connivance in the IL&FS financial fraud case, observing it to be 'non-maintainable'. The SFIO filed a complaint on May 30.

Cash-strapped Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) today said it has sold its 100 per cent stake in IL&FS Wind Power Services Ltd (IWPSL) to Orix Corporation, Japan for Rs 6.05 crore. IWPSL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited, is engaged in providing supervisory and management support services to seven operating wind power generating special purpose vehicles.

Cash-strapped Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) on Thursday said it has sold its 100% stake in IL&FS Wind Power Services Ltd (IWPSL) to ORIX Corporation, Japan, for Rs 6.05 crore. IWPSL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IL&FS Energy Development Co. Ltd., is engaged in providing supervisory and management support services to seven operating wind power generating SPVs.

IL&FS has completed the sale of IL&FS Wind Power Services Limited (IWPSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited (IEDCL), to ORIX Corporation, Japan. IWPSL is engaged in providing supervisory and management support services to seven Companies that own and operate wind power generating assets. Earlier IL&FS Group had divested 51% equity stake held in the Wind Companies to ORIX.

The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry, in consultation with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), is drawing up a 10-point agenda to get the construction activity up and running once the national lock-down is lifted. Swift clearances of arbitration claims to infuse liquidity into construction companies tops the list. The authority has also begun work to iron out payment issues faced by contractors, and design standard operating procedure that will lay down precautions and keep health risk factors in mind, before work on construction resumes.

Describing the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd matter as a blessing in disguise, corporate affairs secretary, Injeti Srinivas, has said that it forced the government to take the bull by its horns and address the difficult issue of corporate governance

ITNL Offshore PTE Limited, a Singapore-based subsidiary of IL&FS-owned ITNL, has urged its Singapore bondholders to defer the winding-up petition as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak IOPL has raised $141 million dim-sum bonds, at 7.5 per cent, payable in 2021, which was guaranteed by ITNL.

Faced with a winding-up petition in a Singapore court, an overseas subsidiary of an IL&FS group entity, has told its bondholders to defer the plea, as a proposed asset sale in China has got delayed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The company said it wants to engage in a consensual discussion with them regarding its obligation. ITNL Offshore PTE Ltd, the Singapore-based subsidiary of IL&FS-owned ITNL, has urged its bondholders to defer the winding-up petition and allow its group company, IIPL, to complete the sale of stake in a Chinese Expressway project to resolve around Rs 2,500 crore of debt and pay its secured and unsecured creditors.

The ministry of corporate affairs is set to make major changes to the framework of statutory audits to ensure that managements cannot arm- twist or tempt auditors into overlooking governance lapses. The proposed changes will mostly be through rules under the Companies Act as well as through changes to auditing standards so that no major change in the law is required, said two people familiar with the discussions in the government

In Mind without Fear, Rajat Gupta tries to make out that he is victim and not culprit. The ex-McKinsey boss contends that New York prosecutors went after him because they could not catch the big fish in the financial scandals of 2008, and therefore wanted to show success in chasing smaller fry. It is of course true that the "masters of the universe" (in Tom Wolfe's evocative phrase) who ran the big investment banks were involved in chicanery and fraud, and got away, but that is nothing new. More often than not, the big financial fish are Teflon-coated. The rigging of the Libor (London inter-bank offered rate) market, crucial for setting interest rates, went on for more than two decades. Yet only a single UBS trader was penalised. Similarly, after the 2008 financial collapse, a single small-timer was convicted for illegality- as a footnote in the film version of The Big Short informs us. In India's age of financial scandal, with YES Bank and the incredible Rana Kapoor in focus, no questions are being asked of its board of directors and senior management. It's no different with the 2018 collapse of IL&FS; key players have not yet been questioned, let alone prosecuted. Indeed, India's prosecutorial establishment would collapse under system over-load if all the mountebanks in the system had to be brought to justice.