New Delhi, July 23 - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the multi-million rupees Satyam fraud, has been investigating the role of 'hawala' or money-laundering operators and their transactions related to this case, agency sources said Thursday.

B. Ramalinga Raju, Satyam founder and former chairman who has been named in the charge sheet, had fraudulently inflated the number of employees in its offices in India and abroad - creating more opportunities for the use of hawala networks, they said.

'We along with other agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are probing whether a hawala network was used for huge monetary transactions from abroad as a lot of money was siphoned off from the company and was sent abroad through legal means,' said a CBI official investigating the matter.