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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.
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. |
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.