Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) has not opened for trading today but it was down 91% in "pre-market." When you hear why, you'll realize that Satyam could be India's version of Enron. There were glimmers of trouble a few weeks ago when Satyam's chairman, Ramalinga Raju, unilaterally decided to buy his son's construction companies -- Maytas Properties Ltd. and Maytas Infra Ltd -- but when the stock collapsed after the announcement, he pulled back within 12 hours.
While that was bad enough, the biggest shocker came today when Raju resigned after announcing that he had faked Satyam's numbers for several years. It turns out that the reason he wanted to buy those construction companies was to plug the $1.03 billion gap between the falsely accounted for and real cash on Satyam's books.
Here's an irony: the word Satyam means "truth" in Sanskrit. And when the truth came out, Satyam got into a rapidly cascading wave of troubles. First, shareholders blocked his asset purchases, then the World Bank banned Satyam from bidding for orders for eight years, alleging that improper benefits were given to World Bank employees. Then four directors quit, and finally, Raju quit the company and announced his fraud.
Guess who the London-based World Council for Corporate Governance gave the Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance last September? None other than Raju.
So even though he "only" attended Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, I would add Raju to this list of five Harvard MBAs who wrecked the global economy -- one of whom is Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO.
Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-07-2009 @ 8:29PM
william lindblad said...
Well, at least you stay up.
I think it would be good to mention that the leadership in this case did not rip everyone off. As far as can be determined, they did not come out rich. Lousy comparison to Enron. But, if nothing else, it just shows that the problems are far from over.
1-07-2009 @ 9:13PM
Rupa said...
The Name "Satyam" (menaing thruth) should be replaced by "Asatyam" (Unthruth)...
It is such a shame and disgrace for Indian Industry.Totally demotivating for all Indian IT Employees..........
1-07-2009 @ 10:26PM
FLAMBOYZ said...
EXCLUSIVE: Check out SATYAM-RAJU'S official resignation letter only @ www.Flamboyz.com
1-08-2009 @ 1:11AM
shiv said...
Raju ban gaya ….
It gives me no joy to make fun of some one facing adversity. It is ironical indeed that the promoter of a company whose name truth has admitted of having committed massive fraud. The result oriented culture has rejected the Gandhian philosophy ENDS ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT the attitude CHALTA HAI, any thing goes ,has made people brazen.
Once a person has committed adultery , the bohemian life style of bed hopping comes naturally. What surprises is that a fraud of such magnitudes involving many persons at various levels remained hidden for so long. Further it is also a question mark on the standards of audit. I am sure that another Arthur Anderson may happen. Having made fun of sub prime crisis India inc has been presented with a equally audacious corporate scandal.
I wonder if there are skeletons in every cupboard having a mahogany exterior. What if tomorrow Infosys or liver is accused of some thing similar? The need of the hour is that instead of lingering litigation of harshad Mehta variety the scam is investigated promptly & in an objective & transparent manner the guilty (ies) not scapegoats are identified & are handed with deterrent punishment & assets are unlocked & put to productive uses.
I am sure the image of IT sector of India or India Inc. per say has taken a severe beating & lots of efforts will be required to repair the gaping hole in our credibility. I wonder what happened to the quality control policy & peer review mechanism of audit profession. I am sure a case of rotation of audit firms or a system of joint auditors will to some extant work as a check.
Also we need to have a real internal audit & an effective audit committee so that the criminal minds do not find it easy to have a band of followers to share the crumbs.
I am sure the soul of gandhiji will have many a sleep less nights
Hey raam
Satyam is neither shiv nor sundarpreventive steps fw hblHow to prevent such episodes in future?
Every crisis and fraud presents some opportunity to learn from mistakes. And this one is no different. In my view, some measures that may have helped detect such frauds earlier, if not prevent them altogether, include:
Mandatory change in external and internal auditors every three years.
Mandatory written confirmation of at least 80 per cent of cash balance and debtors.
Providing additional rights to auditors to contact third parties such as customers, bankers, employees directly for random verification.
Audit committee should have access to lower levels of management directly instead of restricting to CEO and CFO.
Role of audit committee should be more precisely defined and audit committee members should be held responsible.
Does it look like end of road for the accounting profession, because of involvement of such a reputed name?
No. Despite all the flaws, auditors are the only worthwhile gatekeepers representing all the stakeholders — the minority shareholders, lenders, taxman, etc. So the way out is not to point fingers at the entire profession. Instead, weak practices should be plugged and strict punitive actions should be enforced for offenders.the indian madox
? what of donation to clinton foundation by amar singh food for work fame natvar singh
defalcation in bjp office. cash for vote in parliament
scams are like masala movies each one turns out to be more spicy deflecting public opinion like maga budget movie
viewers have fun, tabs picked up by others
sare ke sare beimaan fir bhi mera bharat mahan
1-08-2009 @ 2:45AM
BHarrison said...
Quote from article: "So I would add Raju to this list of five Harvard MBAs who wrecked the global economy -- one of whom is Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO."
Personally, I consider an underlying basic "problem" in most of the corporate and economic debacles going back to Enron and before that, to be what I term "the Harvard/Princeton MBA mentality" which pushes for maximizing the quarterly profits without regard to anything else. Then they use "creative accounting practices" to enhance those "profits".
The end result is that these Harvard & Princeton geniuses have wound up literally . . . LITERALLY DESTROYING the corporations and our national economy. Their pyramid and Ponzi schemes, the "derivatives" and other "economic schemes" are NOTHING MORE THAN BLATANT FRAUDS . . . and similar to Madoff's FRAUDS, and those of Raju of Satyam Computer Services . . . it is an almost complete systemic failure due to fraud.
These CORRUPT CEOs, CFOs, etc. AND our CORRUPT Congressmen, who have been complicit in all of this, are merely trying to save their corporate and political butts with the $700 Billion bailout plan.
"Derivatives" . . . CDSs, CDOs, CMOs, etc . . . are ALL TOTALLY FRAUDULENT FINACIAL DEVICES that were used to set up pyramid and Ponzi scams . . . The CEOs, and CFOs who orchestrated and perpetuated these scams are no better than Madoff and this Raju guy.
The fable about "The King(s) not having any clothes on . . ." is a very apt to the CEOs, CFOs, and Congressmen . . . and "the people" pretended to see them in their "fine clothes" until the small innocent child proclaimed the truth.
It is time to set up the guillitines and to line up the CORRUPT CEOs, CFOs, and Congressmen. The only way to recovery is by purging and making an example out of these corrupt "capitalistic leaders", who turned out to be nothing more than crooks like Madoff and Raju.
Is there ANY DIFFERENCE between the corrupt CEOs and CFOs versus the likes of Madoof or Raju? I do not think that there is a dimes worth of difference . . . they are ALL crooks . . . "derivatives" was just a term used to give a legitimate sounding name to FRAUD.
1-08-2009 @ 7:34AM
BHarrison said...
What is rrequired to restore INTEGRITY in our economy and natinal businesses is fairly simple and straight forward:
1. Congress needs to provide (draft and implemnt) basic reasonable and prudent regulations to establish the legal requirement for corporate adherence to sound business principles; and to provide for effective oversight of adherence to these regulations via the regulatory agencies and bodies.
2. The financial auditing firms need to be required to report infractions against the regulation standards to the oversight authorities.
3. Any CEO, CFO or corporate upper managment or individuals in finacial auditing firms who violate the regulations and standards should be prosecuted to the FULLEST extent of the law to provide deterrents for corruption.
4. The penalities and punishments for "white collar crimes" needs to be commensurate with the crimes; not just a token slap on the wrist or short sentences in "country club" detention centers or "white collar prisons".
The CEOs and other corporate managment are quite adept at setting up fall guys to take the rap for such illegal and fraudulent actions. The guilty parties should be prosecuted to the fullest possible extent; prosecutors should certainly look beyond "token fall guys" as a screen for upper managment.
In its most simple and basic form, none of this is difficult. It is the "politics" and "creative accounting practices' that pervert the INTEGRITY of our economic systems, corporations, FIs, and stock markets. The "insiders" need the "corruptions" to enable and to maximize their exorbitant profits.
"Keep IT Simple" should be the watch words behind it all. As we all well know, the sophisticated and convoluted "creative accounting practices" has caused the downfall of our national economy.
We truly need to strip the corrupt ultra-wealthy of their ill gotten gains to help our national recovery. These corrupt individuals (which includes a LOT of CEOs and CFOs) should be prosecuted to the maximum extent allowable by law.
1-08-2009 @ 7:34AM
BHarrison said...
1-08-2009 @ 6:46AM
Varghese said...
Satyam is an event which opened peoples eyes to the hidden dangers of big time business.
But I would like to put a question to everybody who reads this blog. Is it not a fact that Regulatory auathorities knowingly perpetuate fraud by allowing big companies . . .
I would like to know the views of the so called 'experts'
============
Well, I'm certainly no "expert", I'm probably similar to you . . . BUT it should be obvious to any reasoanble and prudent person who bothers to look into any of this, that the "insiders" within the FIs, the corporations and the brokerages have their own somewhat "closed industry" behind the scenes, where they all enjoy undisclosed advantages and in essence, scheme to bilk or otherwise take advantage of the "average investor.
IPOs are massive scams more times than not; the insiders get special advance pricing and consessions, etc.
The regulatory agencies and the corporations are like judges and attorneys . . . they all "belong to the fraternity of their industry"; and they support and provide advantages to their fraternity brothers.
How is it, that major corporations who have used financial auditors in the past, keep "discovering additional losses" that were not picked up by the financial auditing firms previously? Everyone gets sucked into becoming complicit in "playing the industry games" . . . and the "investors" are the smucks who get duped and suckered in; and the "regulatory agencies" allow it all to happen. That can only occur under either "incomptentce" or corrupt "influence pedaling" . . . and all of that is determined by whatever Congress does, right?
So, the primary problem is Congressmen "selling out" to the special interests groups. Congressmen only care about the political donors who pay for their campaigns to get the votes via any means. It should be clear to ALL Americans that the vast majority of Congressmen do not give a damn about the American people . . . especially as reflected in the manner of the lack of the promised FULL DISCLOSURE and TRANSPARENCY in regard to the $700 Billion bailout plan. Congress is still allowing the corrupt corporations to "game" the bailout plan to the detriment of the American people.
1-08-2009 @ 12:38PM
Varghese said...
Thank you Mr.Harrison for your effort.
But my question was basically addressed to the Indian Authorities.
In India, we have a system of Public Issue of shares with 'Red Herrings Prospectus'. If you are a commoner like me you would probably may not be aware of the meaning of 'red herring'. Looking out for the meaning of the word will be enlightening.
In old times- say ten years back- by looking into the offer document of a public issue, an investor should be gettin an idea of how much amount has been invested by the promotor of the company in the business and how many shares he had acquired with that amount.
In the present system the 'red herring prospectus' is a very bulky document which do not reveal these basic data to the investor.
As a result, manipulative promoters are becoming billioners overnight by selling a small stake in their company. To put it simply, a promoter who have invested 1 million Rupees in his company may be holding 90% of the shares while he sell 10% of the shares at 100 million to the public. This is being done with the knowledge and approval of SEBI and the knowledge and connivance of the Wise Professionals manning Foreign Capital flowing into the Country.
1-09-2009 @ 1:55AM
Hemant Kumar said...
I am just wishing that is a case of someone actually taken the money out and money was there sometime. Otherwise, Satyam as a company won't left any value and that is too bad for all investors and employee of company. They are innocent.
Checkout more of my view at -http://funwithfinance-youdare.blogspot.com.
1-09-2009 @ 5:35AM
Sayan said...
They have earned dollars,Fame,Name for India--They will continue to do so.
That is the might of Satyamites.
Exit of an Indian giant, Fall of Indian pride can not be taken so easily.
We can not let other countries to benefit from this troubled water.
We can not let Indian flag bearer go down just because of a person's fault from which he never gained anything.
Such a wonderful gesture…
A msg from unknown Satyamite…
Dear all of my Satyamites,
Yesterday will be a memorable day to us throughout our life. Little bit of business & human nature knowledge is forcing me to write few of my thoughts (Please ignore them if they doesn’t make any sense). Ask yourself who is worst affected by all this mayhem. Is it u & me (employees), Govt or Satyam & Ramalingaraju ?. My conviction says that employees of any MNC are associated to that company as long as they don’t have any better option, the best thing government can do for a company is to keep itself away from it. But there was a visionary who created wealth for a nation for 20 years, the only thing that cannot be separated from Satyam for these 20 years & ahead also if Satyam remains was\is a name called “Ramalinga Raju”. Fortunately I got some 15 min of time talking to him when i was an ELTP. He’s much softer than we see him. Imagine what would be going on in his mind when he was writing yesterday’s letter accepting all the things which he did only to save his company. All have made him scapegoat for what has happened & left the company keeping their integrity intact. He was cursed badly for putting the money of a public limited company into his family driven company but it only now clear that how he was transferrring the risk from 50,000 people to his two sons & his known-integrity.
The worst which can happen to we the employees is that we are out of our current job, jobless for time being & then again getting a job which we deserve & our families will be worried for us(as they are always). But a relatively bitter truth will be for the Raju-family who will be annoyed for ages & will be treated as miscreants by those who do not know the truth or more about Greedy investors & money market. And the truth is that he has not stolen some thousand crores rupees into his own pocket, it was a bubble he created which busted. (And every other company on earth does so, being wary of not getting trapped)
One more thing which annoys me is does a philanthropist guy deserve this disgraceful exit ? I really feel sad about the way he’s been portrait in the media. Our rustic fellows have already started comparing him with Harshad Mehta. Tell me any incident in corporate India where any chairman has dared to confess such irregularities in his own firm. And believe me it takes hell lot of guts to accept all this publicly. And as I read the news today morning it was published there that even his community members have suggested him not to tell anything and later on he can play with the Indian laws as every politician does in India. But as he mentioned it was all deep regret in his conscience which lead him to confess all this.
I am not at all saying that he’s totally innocent and unaware of what’s been going there but a person who has started a journey called Satyam 20 yrs ago with few associates and made it 4th largest IT Company in India, done all this for sake of his 50000 Satyam family members. In the end i’ll ask only one question to all of my friends,” for whom he has created this bubble, if it was he who was going bankrupt? ”
Satyam will get back up from all of those
80,000 families who got benefited in past 20 years.
from all 30 villeges under By Raju foundation.
From 1/2 million homeless children who are in Satyam foundation camp and under care indirectly.
From all under developed nations where Satyam Foundation has worked enormously shoulder to shoulder with local NGOs.
Jointly written by
Piyush Sinha & An Unknown Non-Satyamite
Satyam fights back!!!!!!
Long live Esprite de Satyam.
Long live the spirit of India!!
Jai Hind.
1-09-2009 @ 10:12AM
www.stockresearch52.wordpress.com said...
Satyam story is like stashing public money inside the pumpkin.
1-09-2009 @ 1:29PM
Siddharth said...
Price Waterhouse Achievements, are they looking for more...??
1. Dell, Inc. litigation On January 31, 2007 PwC was named as a co-defendant in a class action lawsuit filed against Dell, the world's number two PC manufacturer. Taken on behalf of shareholders, the lawsuit alleges that Dell, and its auditors, failed to disclose information about Dell's financial condition.
2.Tyco settlement In July 2007, PwC agreed to pay $225 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Tyco International Ltd over a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud.
3. Global Trust Bank, PwC fail to detect huge levels of NPA of the bank. The NPA had accumulated due to massive exposure made by the erstwhile bank into the stock market which PwC is alleged to have overlooked.
4. DSQ collapse
5. Satyam , it was again PricewaterhouseCoopers who certified that Satyam's balance sheet carried figures for cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore, as of 30 September 2008, against Rs 5,361 crore reflected in the books.
On 15 march, 2008, the Reserve Bank of India has withdrawn the blanket ban imposed on the international audit and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from auditing banks and non-banking finance institutions.
Read more at my blog http://bizdom.blogspot.com
1-09-2009 @ 2:37PM
harish said...
sir,
i dont think this is a big crime to anounce and resign the jod.many owners of the company do this alteration of accounts to get loan.but i dont know why he cant replace the altered money or try to replace it.i dont think it is tough for such a big ceo of the company to earn 1.2 billion when the ordianary share trading person of his company equity earns in laks.he should have earned in some other way and funded his deficit money.he should have thought once before confesing this and resignin.there are various ways to multiply millions which he should have sort out or asked some expert.....
1-11-2009 @ 11:44PM
Varghese said...
Satyam is an event which opened peoples eyes to the hidden dangers of big time business.
But I would like to put a question to everybody who reads this blog. Is it not a fact that Regulatory auathorities knowingly perpetuate fraud by allowing big companies to enter capital market in 'book building issues', where investors are kept at dark about the investment made by the promoters in their company and the book value of the shares.
Howmany people wknow what was the actual amount put in by the promoters per share in the case of Reliance Power Limited?
DLF?
Jet airways?
What is the logic of FII's putting their money within 5 minutes of opening of a Public Issue, that too 20 times? Are they doing good for the investors who have invested with them? Or are they trying to fool somebody?
I would like to know the views of the so called 'experts'