Mr. Raju the True Poster Boy of Corporate fraud

It is shocking and stunning to hear the sensational and astonishingly surprising news on the fraud of this magnitude and proportion committed by somebody who we all admire so much. I still remember meeting Ramalinga Raju in Asia IT Ministers summit sometime in 2003. I was so thrilled that I got a chance to meet someone who has done so much and I always argued with people who raised questions when AP Govt, especially Naidu, granted so many lands to Satyam Computers in and around Hyderabad. Look at the story, today. They have been cheating many investors for almost 20 quarters with some false numbers. What have we got here? Bernie Maddoff in US cheated its investors to the tune of 50 Billion and now we hear from somebody who appeared to be a great leader that all he has been doing is report some damn numbers to exchanges, investors, traders, analysts and who else. I invested in Satyam and enjoyed dividend twice in 2008 (Sep and Nov). 5000Cr cash on the books impressed me and I accumulated when the stock plunged after the recent failed acquisition plans. But, it is now noted that the balance sheet was a joke and Raju surprised everybody.

I saw a colleague or two laughing at those who invested but I wonder how narrow short sighted people are when it comes to finances. If you are investing in LIC, Mutual Funds, ULIPs, Life Insurance plans etc., you may have had lost some money indirectly. So, everybody is a looser when something of this magnitude develops over such a long time and comes to light just overnight. I heard that investors committing suicide in US is highest now than ever before. I am wondering how many Raju may have killed.

It is very interesting reading his letter. He says that he and his family offloaded stake for philanthropic needs but not any other reason. Who is he trying to fool at this stage of the game? Satyam issued statement that Merill has been asked by them to advise on regaining the investor confidence. Now, Raju is his letter asks exchanges to entrust Merill to explore merger opportunities. Merill was probably hired for looking at merger opportunities in the first place but not for regaining investor confidence. I mean this guy is a well dressed crook and I am not sure how he could get away with this for many quarters. What can you say about regulators, auditors and bankers? Man! Who knows? His letter sounds like he thought he will be able to fix it but it went out of his hand and he spoke out. I am already hearing people here compare this to Enron. We will have to wait and see who does what now. They made 61 Cr profit in Q2 but they reported 649 Cr. I am not sure if it ends here. May be there are many companies playing with numbers laughing out loud at all of us. God bless everybody!!

You may read the letter