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SES sales exec dupes partners of crores

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DQW Bureau
13 Apr 2009
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It's proving to be a summer of discontent for Chennai partners as some of

them are once again in the grip of a scam worth several crore rupees. The

accused this time is a sales executive of a distributor and a channel partner,

who in collision are alleged to have duped several partners across Chennai.

On talking to affected partners The DQ Week discovered that the modus

operandi that Arun Prasad, a sales executive in SES and Alwar Rajan, Proprietor,

Sree Computers, Chennai, operated on was that Prasad would bill products in the

name of few channel partners and transfer the materials to Rajan.

The whole issue came to light when SES asked a couple of partners to clear

their outstanding amounts which had been pending for several months. It was then

the partners realized that someone had misused their credit limit and account

for carrying out these fraudulent transactions. By that time both Prasad and

Rajan had absconded.

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Explaining the sequence of events Vijay, Proprietor, Emerald Info Systems, an

affected channel partner said that the sales executive of SES Technologies has

misused the accounts of the company by billing all the products in his company

name and transferring the products to a company called Sree Computers in

Chennai. “It was a well planned scam, where Arun Prasad of SES sent products to

our company without taking any purchase orders from us. When we questioned him

about the same, Prasad asked us to transfer the materials to Sree Computers in

Chennai. Now a few months down the line we have received a notification from SES

in which we have been asked to pay nearly Rs 18 lakh for the products, which we

never ordered.”

He also said that the security cheques given to SES Technologies were misused

by the sales executive. Vijay also questioned how the products were billed

without receiving the purchase order from the company, as they were worth

several lakhs. “Our credit limit with SES is only Rs 1 lakh, then how could the

distributor bill us several lakhs worth materials, that too without even

receiving a single purchase order from us?”

Related developments:
Sree

Computers files Insolvency Petition:
Meanwhile a twist in the

tale happened when Alwar Rajan, Proprietor, Sree Computers, who is alleged

to be one of the masterminds in the scam, filed an Insolvency Petition in

the Madras High Court last month. Madurai survives

scam:
On the other hand, Madurai, successfully managed to resolve

a similar scam. A Muthuswamy, Secretary, Confed-ITA, explained that two

executives of Compuage Infocom were sacked for their alleged role. “We heard

that partners in Madurai were cheated by the sales executives of Compuage by

forging their accounts and informed this to their top management, who

investigated the case and cleared the dealers. They also sacked two

employees-Narayanan and Saravanan for involving in fraudulent activity and

issued no due certificate to the affected partners,” he added.
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He alleged that the sales executive has played a similar game with many other

dealers in the city and the total amount of the scam might run into a few crores.

Recounting a similar instance, Akhilesh Chandoke, Proprietor, Chandoke

Systems, Chennai said that Prasad had also sent him motherboards worth Rs 2.5

lakh without any purchase orders. However, SES Technologies claims that Chandoke

has an outstanding payment with them. “As soon as I got the products I warned

Prasad and asked him to take the material out of my shop. I wonder how there is

an outstanding payment in my company's name when I did not buy any materials

from the distributor.”

CP Praveen, CEO, Vasavi Computers, Vellore claimed that he has also been

defrauded in a similar fashion. “We haven't issued any purchase orders or bought

any materials from the distributor. However, they billed us for products worth

nearly Rs 35 lakh in the name of our company without our knowledge and are now

asking us to pay the money.”

The affected dealers have approached Confed-ITA, who in turn has sent a

written communication to SES Technologies, the copy of which is with The DQ

Week. “We have written about the fraudulent activity that has happened with

partners in Tamil Nadu and have asked the distributor to take severe action

against the sales executive and help the partners in resolving the issue. We

have also asked SES to compulsorily send the complete statement of accounts for

the whole year from the main office to all our partners dealing with SES, which

is what the other major distributors like Tech Pacific and Redington do in order

to maintain transparency. This should be practiced by all other distributors by

default,” informed PN Prasad, President, Confed-ITA.

When contacted, Suresh Tuteja, GM-Finance, SES Technologies, informed that

the company is investigating the matter seriously. “I am in Chennai for the

second time within a week and we are investigating the issue. We are also

considering taking the help of forensic department if needed to check whether

the documents have been manipulated. We might be able to come to a conclusion

within a week's time and would sit with the affected channel partners and

Confed-ITA representatives for a discussion and would initiate legal actions on

whoever is found to be guilty,” Tuteja affirmed.

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