Satyam: Ramalinga Raju’s experiments with truth

The truth behind Satyam fraud
The Tribune, Chandiagrh
The fall of the IT czar by Aditi Roy Ghatak

There may be no confessional to explain why Ramalinga Raju confessed. Accountancy corridors are rife with stories of others getting away with more serious fraud. In fact, there is some derision with which the lurid acknowledgements of the Satyam supremo – a first generation cheat – are treated in those exalted circles. Elsewhere, the averments are regarded as sheer stupidity that will force the investigative searchlights into the universe of crooked corporate accounting practices.

Clearly, the problem was with Raju being a novice at the complex game of manipulative mathematics. He may have mastered the art of concealing the numbers but not how to manage the business environment. He did not know whom to please and how much.

India is a country where corporate fraud is a matter to be brushed under the carpet. Tax evasion is not a crime whether it be on a medical prescription or electronics goods; one is happy to refuse a receipt and evade the tax. That much is a matter of public knowledge. When it comes to bigger fraud, the first problem is to have the fraud seriously investigated and the second is to get a conviction.

The more than 50,000 cases under the Companies Act pending in the country’s courts with a conviction rate of 5 per cent or less is adequate testimony to this. The corresponding conviction rate in the UK is reportedly around 61 per cent.
The fall of the IT czar

Question: Maytas is Satyam if it is spelled backwards. What do you infer from it?
Prabu Chawla: Why are you surprised? It was meant to ensure reverse flow of money from Satyam to Maytas.

Comment: We may never get to the bottom pit of Corporate Corruption. The Politicians have made it a black hole, like investment in real estate inflating like a balloon and collaping. Or like smuggling, money laundering, hawala, and generating black money and invested in foreign banks, which comes back in the "FDI" route. The parallel unaccounted money is almost as vast as the GDP of the nation. This is the main reason why poverty and slums are prevalent in spite of 60 years progress, we have 70% population left poor. No reason to see why the motion picture Slumdog Millionaire is reaping the harvest. Satyam Raju is one in a million....sadly he spoke the truth to save the perpetrators.

Satyam Scam: Now, hit Raju with rotten eggs, virtually!

Nail The Thief
After making Ramalinga Raju and the iconic IT firm he founded the butt of jokes, a bunch of trigger-happy IT whiz-kids have created a game "Nail The Thief" where players are asked to hit the tainted Satyam founder with rotten eggs and win an iPod!

Within days of its launch, the game has already been played more than 100,000 times, with a few playing it over and over again, as per the information on the website of the game.

In the game, available on the website, NailTheThief.Com, a player is given a chance to hit Raju's face with rotten eggs as many times possible within 30 seconds.
Now, hit Raju with rotten eggs, virtually!
Nail The Thief

Where has Satyam Funds Migrated? Maytas inflating the real estate balloon!

Inflatable Balloon
Maytas and Inflatable Condom Synonymous?
Maytas, which is promoted by India's fourth largest IT consultant and software exporter Satyam Computer Services, will invest Rs 2500 crore in the SEZ project. The funds for the project will be raised through a mix of debt and equity.

It is not clear how a company which has been tainted for misdemeanor is going to function by infusing money. It seems the major part of the money will be in the form of salary to some of the highest paid guys who were party to the scam. We are made to understand that the scam is only at the top and rest in the hierarchy are not aware. It is also known that many of the clients in US and other parts of the world are canceling the order on Satyam, so what is the job these so called experts in Satyam are going to do?

Before the government commits itself to the public money it should make sure about the operating methodology of such companies where most of the works is carried out in virtual world. It requires smart operators (not the Police) to ferret out information or otherwise the money will vanish through the route created by Ramalinga Raju- (Maytas the Real Estate Inflated balloon- the thin rubber enveloped by air of bureaucrats vanishing into thin air- no proof no evidence!)
Can bailout package help Satyam
Satyam in the News: 87 Pictures smoke- screening the money launderers

Maytas companies have been given contracts worth over Rs 30,000 crore by the Andhra Pradesh state government and have accumulated a huge amount of land. “One example is the Rs 12,220 crore Hyderabad Metro Project. It has now come to light that the managing director of DMRC had written to the deputy chairman, Planning Commission in September 2008, protesting against the PPP model adopted in the case of Hyderabad Metro, where 296 acres of prime land has been made available to the build-operate-transfer (BOT) operator for commercial exploitation,” the CPM said.
CPM demands probe into land allotment to Maytas

Satyam Scam: Corrupt Corporate Code: Political- Bureaucrat Nexus?

Satyam Scandal Rocks Outsourcing...
Shocker from Satyam
Ramalinga Raju’s letter of admission came as a shocker to corporate India on Wednesday morning. Outgoing CEO of the IT major admitted fraud to the tune of Rs 40 billion and said that the balance sheets had been inflated for years. He admitted that Maytas deal was the last ditch effort to get value for the fictitious assets. The development is expected to have wide ranging impact and has sent ripples across Bombay Stock Exchange. The accounts of Satyam are expected to be sealed as the day progresses….

India Inc goes into 'deep shock'
CII President K. V. Kamath said there was a ‘need to immediately examine the loopholes in regulation, accounting, audit and governance that allowed such lapses to occur and address them with urgency’. He said corporate India must ‘reflect on ways to demonstrate its quality of governance and enhance the confidence of stakeholders.’
Satyam scam: Mega corporate fraud
India Inc goes into ‘deep shock’

IIM course helps 66 ESM land corporate jobs

AHMEDABAD — All the 66 former defence personnel, who cleared the six-month business management course, have been offered lucrative jobs with annual salaries ranging between Rs2 million to Rs4.5 million.

The course was specially designed for them by the IIM, Ahmedabad. As many as 84 reputed companies queued up on the IIM campus with 304 job offers for retired colonels, wing commanders and squadron leaders who hitherto took home Rs20,000 to Rs 40,000 every month.

Top firms, which absorbed these officers from the Army, Navy and the Air Force — 12 of them women — included the Tatas, RPG Group, Zee Telefilms, Cadila Pharma, ICICI Foundation, etc.

IIM-A director Samir Barua told Khaleej Times the ex-servicemen would begin a second innings to conquer the corporate world by working mainly in fields like administration, human resources development, marketing, corporate communications, strategic planning and designing.

By Mahesh Trivedi
(Correspondent- Khaleej Times)
24 March 2008
IIM course helps 66 ex- defence personnel land Rs4.5 million jobs

Flogging a Horse

"When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount and get a different horse."

However, in government, education and corporate India, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

Buying a stronger whip.

Changing riders.

Appointing a committee to study the horse.

Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

Lowering the standards so that the dead horse can be included.

Reclassifying the dead horse as 'living impaired'.

Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

Providing additional funding and/ or training to increase dead horse's performance.

Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.

Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horse.

Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position!
If you understand the above, then you are obviously residing in India.

We thank Lt Gen Raj Kadyan (Retd) for this anecdote.
Forwarded by Brig PT Gangadharan (Retd)

Comments: Flogging will certainly invite attention of animal activists.