The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is a

statutory agency A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being Primary and secondary legislation, empowered or deleg ...

in India tasked with investigating corporate fraud. It operates under the

Ministry of Corporate Affairs The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is an Indian government ministry primarily concerned with administration of the Companies Act 2013, the Companies Act 1956, the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2 ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

, with the mandate of detecting and prosecuting or recommending prosecution for

white-collar crime The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non-directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. The crimes are believed to be committed by middle- or upper-class indivi ...

s. The SFIO is a

multi-disciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

organization, comprising experts in various fields such as accountancy, forensic auditing, banking, law, information technology, investigation, company law, capital market, taxation, among other domains. Initially, it was set up by a resolution adopted by the Government of India on 2 July 2003 and carried out investigations within the existing legal framework under section 235 to 247 of the erstwhile Companies Act, 1956. Later, Section 211 of the

Companies Act, 2013 The Companies Act 2013 (No. 18 of 2013) is an Act of the Parliament of India which forms the primary source of Indian company law. It received presidential assent on 29 August 2013, and largely superseded the Companies Act 1956. The Act was ...

, accorded the statutory status to SFIO.

History

Based on the recommendation of Naresh Chandra Committee on corporate governance (which was set up by the Government on 21 August 2002) and in the backdrop of stock market scams as also the failure of non-banking companies resulting in huge financial loss to the public, Vajpayee Government decided to set up SFIO on 9 January 2003.

Organisation structure

Agency headquarters is in the Indian capital, New Delhi, with field offices located in major cities throughout India. The SFIO draws most of its officers from the ICLS, IAS, IPS,

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

and banks & other central services. The current SFIO director is Keshav Chandra (IAS). Many Additional, Joint and deputy director level officers are from ministry 's parent cadre, Indian Corporate Law Service. The agency has four regional offices in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Investigation

The SFIO is tasked with conducting investigations into a company's affairs when the government deems it necessary. Such instances arise in various scenarios: * Upon receiving a report from the

Registrar of Companies A company register is a register of business organizations such as companies in the jurisdiction they operate under. Registration is normally mandated by the government of that jurisdiction. A company register serves a purpose of protection, acco ...

or inspector under section 208 of the

. * Upon notification of a special resolution passed by a company indicating the necessity of an investigation into its affairs. * On public interest. * Upon request from any department of the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

or a

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

References

External links

* {{Domestic national intelligence agencies Fraud Indian intelligence agencies Ministry of Corporate Affairs Vajpayee administration