Ramalinga Raju admitted to a corporate fraud at
Satyam and confessed to cooking up balance sheet and income statements to show inflated revenues, imaginary expenses and non existent cash reserves. First Sub-Prime, then
Madoff and now
Satyam. Where is the much spoken corporate governance? What are the regulatory bodies like
SEBI & SEC, independent board of directors and external auditors doing?
Satyam lost more than 60% of its stock value on one trading session after the news broke. A lot of people including common man would have lost a lot of money, in some cases maybe their life savings. With the erosion would have gone the dreams of a good retirement, marriage of daughters, sons education, buying that house, taking a vacation and so much more. The erosion is not because of market forces or a bad economy but because of greed of one man hand in glove with few others who thought resorting to any means justifies the end. The end being making more money for self.
Raju's stake in the company came down from 25% in 2004 to a mere 3% in 2008. So he was steadily selling his stake and amassing cash knowing fully well about the screwed up balance sheet and the fear that the fraud might come out and he might lose money in stock erosion. He converted his paper money into real money and left others hanging dry.
This is one form of terrorism. "Corporate terrorism" where promoters, insiders, directors make a mockery of rules, bend them to satiate their greed and in teh bargain massacre dreams of many innocent civilians who believe in these leaders and entrust them with their life savings. This should be treated at par with murder, rape and terrorism and the punishment should be equally stringent. Otherwise, there will always be a Raju or a Madoff ready to make money at some innocent person's expense.
No 'Truth' in 'Satyam' anymore!! Satyam is not Sundaram.
