Satyam Scandal (2009): India’s Biggest Corporate Fraud
One of the biggest business scams in the history of the nation was exposed in January 2009 when the Satyam affair, sometimes referred to as “India’s Enron,” broke. At the heart of this controversy was Satyam Computer Services, a renowned provider of back-office accounting services and IT services. Ramalinga Raju, the chairman of the firm, said that he had masterminded a complex accounting scam that had been used to inflate the company’s financial statements for years, eroding investor trust and damaging India’s corporate image internationally.
Since its founding in 1987, Satyam has grown significantly, ranking among India’s leading providers of IT services and emerging as a major force in the worldwide outsourcing market. By the middle of the 2000s, Satyam was a hot stock for investors, as both its clientele and stock performance were steadily growing. But beneath this appearance of prosperity was a complicated network of dishonesty.
When Raju admitted to lying about Satyam’s financial statements for years to the company’s board in a letter, the controversy became public on January 7, 2009. Raju acknowledged that the company had overstated its earnings, margins, and cash and bank holdings by more than $1 billion. He clarified that the fraud started out as a minor accounting error but quickly spiralled out of hand as he fought…
