Infosys pays for CEO Salil Parekh's weekly personal trips, alleges whistleblower letter

A group of anonymous Infosys employees have written a damning letter to the board of the company and another to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging CEO Salil Parekh of indulging in unethical practices. Along with a host of accusations, the group that has recognised itself as 'Ethical Employees' has alleged that the company pays the travel expenses for Parekh's weekly personal trips.

"CEO spends two and half days in a week in Ecity and rest in Mumbai. All his travel expenses are paid by the company, for these weekly personal trips. He is green card holder and avoids deduction of taxes during his US travel which is non-compliance. Please check and details will be provided (sic)," the whistleblower letter to the Infosys board states.

The letter also alleged that the CEO prevented the employees from highlighting issues in board meets and of bypassing approvals. "He directs them to make wrong assumptions to show margins. CFO is compliant and he prevents us from showing in board presentations large deal issues (sic)," the letter states. "CEO and CFO are asking us to show more profits in treasury by taking up risks and make a change to policies. This will provide short-term profits," the group alleged.

The letter also alleged that Parekh made controversial remarks against board members DN Prahlad and D Sundaram. "CEO told us, "no one in the Board understands these things, they are happy as long as share price is up. Those two Madrasis (Sundaram and Prahlad) and Diva (Kiran) make silly points, you just nod and ignore them". We have voice recordings of this," the letter mentioned.   

The tech giant has issued a statement in response to the letter and said, "The whistleblower complaint has been placed before the Audit Committee as per the company's practice and will be dealt with in accordance with the company's whistleblowers' policy."

(Correction: An earlier version of the story said 'weekly US trips'. The letter states Ecity and Mumbai, not US. It has since been changed.)

Also read: 'E-mails, voice recordings': Whistleblower letter trains guns on Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, CFO Nilanjan Roy

Also read: 'Those two Madrasis make silly points, ignore them': Infosys CEO Salil Parekh's alleged remarks in whistleblower letter