Comments on: Satyam – the Larceny Scenario

By: Atul

Atul — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:48:19 +0000

there is a politicalangle to this clearly. Maytas, an unknown company acquired 12000 crs worth of contracts in 3 years. we know the award process in India, and its is politically motivated. The first reaction from the govt, when this blew up was to suggest a 2000 cr blowout – presposterous. Raju has clearly taken been the fall guy for the benami political guys. While Satyam will be cleaned up as a company, much of the politicians involvement can be deduced by what happens to Raju.

While Basab talks about exemplary action by the govt, I think they goofed by sitting on this for 48 hrs. Can you imagine the documentaion shredding , and hiding of evidence which could have happened in those 48 hrs – not neccessarily by Raju, but by his management team, who may not have been directly involved, but worried about their complicity in this event.

By: suds

suds — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:44:10 +0000

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Satyam_had_Rs.... So the money was there in the bank on Sep 30, 2008 and disappeared after that!! INCREDIBLE

By: Alok

Alok — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:04:24 +0000

As Nadan Nileknai says about this scam – 'Innovation was way ahead of regulation' , i feel Satyam was playing with money the way their fathers and forefathers would have taught them and they felt comfortable with dont know if Mr Raju is MBA or financial degree anything but if he is not he cant be blamed , Dhirubhai Ambani the biggest ycoon was also a financial innovator often blamed to be criminal but he was good in networking with right guys and he turned his innovations to new financial norms .

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:38:22 +0000

Your analysis was right http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ramalinga_Raju...

By: Glass House : Rebuilding Trust

Glass House : Rebuilding Trust — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:02:51 +0000

[...] 6 AM Pacific » Blog Archive » Satyam – the Larceny Scenario [...]

By: sriks7

sriks7 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:47:13 +0000

The thing that I want to see is more of the institutional investors filing civil/criminal suits against the Rajus/Auditors. This is oddly reminiscient of the silence of outrage against the rating agencies and their complicity in the sub-prime scam in the US. I can understand that the management would take the investors for a ride if possible, and often do and it is the investor's job to ask the right questions. But for an auditor whose name is his reputation, to go along with the management in perpetrating gross manipulation of financial statements & claiming to be a victim is not excuseable

By: suds

suds — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:21:18 +0000

Basab – you are absolutely correct. Satyam insiders confirm there is no overinvoicing to the best of their knowledge. Raju and gang has siphoned money and when the problem got neck deep – very disgracefully , Raju threw mud at satyam's profitability to distract the investigators. All satyam needs is now immediate cash (with all the money siphoned) and a good dynamic operation focussed board and it can survive. The perpetrators of this fraud – the raju gang and the accomplice in this case -PWC should be punished so severely – to make it a shining example.

By: Krishna

Krishna — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:13:28 +0000

[oops... the first line in the above comment should end with the word `not'

As you rightly say, the big relief is that the employees (except a critical few that sang along) are apparently innocent and can continue to do what they know best – to service clients. Tracking back the funds would be difficult if it had been turned over to politicians, who always put in place a well oiled laundry machinery (a la Mayawati in U.P who distributes slush money to her cronies and takes it back by way of `gift on her birthday’). We know how patronizing both Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) and YSR Reddy (Congress) has been to the Rajus until recently and given the ease with which MAYTAS was awarded the State government contracts even after the dramatic announcement of the ill-fated Maytas buyout deal by Satyam for $1.6 billion that opened the floodgates.

One other thing. Now we know why H.D.Deve Gowda was angry against NRN and Infosys acquiring massive real estate a few years back. He obviously couldn’t play with Infosys like Chandrababu Naidu and YSR did with Satyam !

By: Krishna

Krishna — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:10:38 +0000

No case shall lie against auditors and others so long as their criminalities are established by the investigating authorities. Now that there is only a disclosure by Raju that is highly suspect. On the basis of findings made by the investigators, the Government and the shareholders can file a separate suit against Raju’s (for fraud, falsification of accounts and other transgressions) and auditors (for criminal dereliction of duty if not for complicity, that may or may not be established) and against the other companies in the web (for complicity in diversion of funds) for criminal misdemeanor and one against the bankers as well, for perpetuating the scam by allowing Satyam to carry on showing non-existent fixed deposits parked with them in its annual accounts.

By: BSR

BSR — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:04:23 +0000

Mr. Pradhan, I have been an avid follower of your blog ever since I found it a few weeks back. It's interesting to see that you're hoping for the best with the Satyam fiasco. I guess it is a slightly controversial issue and it's good to see someone play it safe, rather than overstate the case (which is often what the media does).
All the same, I am not sure if there's a political angle to whole issue. The politicians have dropped Raju like a hot potato, to say the least. Something tells me that the whole Maytas business has a political/'benaami' angle to it. If you remember, Mr. E. Sreedharan (Delhi Metro) had raised some issues about the Hyd-Metro deal going to Maytas. I have a gut feeling Raju is taking the fall for one of the biggies (YSR/Chandrababu).