Cases related to corporate frauds have come to the light in the country in recent years. Year-wise details of the investigations ordered through the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) during the last three years and the current year, are as under:

Year	Investigations referred to SFIO	Investigations completed	Investigations under progress	Investigations Quashed/ stayed by Courts
2013-14	83	78	04	01
2014-15	71	49	19	03
2015-16	184	11	172	01
2016-17 (till date)	52	01	50	01
Total	390	139	245	06

During the last three years and in the current year, SFIO has filed 258 prosecutions in various Courts.  In this period, 163 number of cases have been disposed off by the courts, of which there has been successful conviction in 77 cases wherein punishment including imprisonment to directors as well as of fines have been imposed. 

The mandate under the Companies Act, is to conduct investigation, find out the violations of Companies Act, 1956 and take penal action for appropriate punishment provided under the Companies Act, 1956.  

Details of expenditure incurred on the functioning of SFIO during the last three years and the current year are as under:

Year	Amount (in crore)
2013-14	9.25
2014-15	9.84
2015-16	10.18
2016-17 (till date)	8.91

 The Government has taken various measures to strengthen the SFIO to check fraud/ irregularities by companies, including: 

(i)      the term “Fraud” has been defined in the Companies Act, 2013; 

(ii)     Statutory status to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO);

(iii)    Increasing application of technology for early detection of frauds through data mining and Forensic Audit, etc. 

This was stated by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

Definition of fraud expanded under company law, strengthening SFIO powers and mandating technology-driven fraud detection. SFIO has handled a rising volume of corporate fraud references, initiating numerous prosecutions with several court disposals and convictions imposing imprisonment and fines on directors. Its statutory mandate under company law is to investigate violations of the Companies Act and pursue penal action. The Government has strengthened fraud detection and response by defining Fraud in the Companies Act, conferring statutory status on SFIO, and deploying technology such as data mining and Forensic Audit; SFIO's year-to-year expenditures have been reported.