Today finance world has been rocked by the admission of fraud by Satyam Computers founder & chairman B. Ramalinga Raju and the investors vented their ire not only on Satyam stocks but also on the other stocks in the exchange, over the genuineness of the accounts. B.Ramalinga Raju's resignation in no way amounts to penance or remorse as the India's image in the world financial markets has already been tarnished and will take a credible time to regain the trusts of major financial institutions who play a major role in India's financial trade.
Financial markets all over the world are in a turmoil and crisis and India, though in a little better position then other countries, was still in a vice like grip of a bear phase and the moment it seemed that bear phase will morph in to a bull phase, one Mr. Raju came out with a attitude of shotgun murrugan and shot down both the bull as well as the bear and then with a feeling of remorse came out with a holier than thou statement is nothing but a hogwash.
As a lay-man, it would be difficult for me to understand the finer details or get to the nitty gritty of the fraud, but one thing is for sure that when Mr. Raju was cooking the books as per his taste, were all the other chefs (read: Board Of Directors) were sleeping and Mr. Raju admitting his responsibility for the fraud does not acquit the board of their lacunae. This means only one thing and that is either the board of directors were just a decoration on the company's annual reports or they are equally responsible for the scam and are now covering their stains by pointing fingers at Mr. Raju. They have conveniently forgotten that when you point a finger at someone, there are three other fingers that are pointing in your direction.
Secondly, the cooked books were audited by a reputed firm 'PriceWaterhouseCoopers' or well known as 'PWC', so will any one tell this lay-man as to what these so called professional and internationally acclaimed firm was up to and again it comes down to two options either PWC was not doing it's job properly or there was some kind of hand in glove tactics. Any which way you look at it, I don't buy the statements of the board of directors that they were not aware of the fraud as it is not the first time that the accounts had been manipulated or altered and the same were being manipulated for several years and I am also not selling the idea that Mr. Raju is only a fall guy, but what I am saying is that everyone including Mr. Raju, the present board of directors and the auditors have to take collective responsibility for this Mega fraud and the guilty should be severely punished in order to deter the future scamsters and fraudsters.
The statement of Mr. Raju in his resignation letter - 'It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten' - is amusing to say at the least and if nothing else. So in short he is saying that he purposely initiated this scam and then could not stop because of fear of backlash, but the question in moot is what made him initiate such a dangerous ride, in which the danger of being eaten up was right from the beginning at the time of sitting on a tiger. I understand from this statement is that even though Mr. Raju knew the dangers that lay ahead, he chose that particular path in order to stay afloat in a rat race and fill up the pockets of those around him as well as himself.
At this juncture there is nothing else we all can do except sympathize with the employees and the investors of the company and even the Government showing their true colours has promised to inquire in to this fraud. This will be easily one of the worst corporate moments in the history of Indian Corporates.
Furthermore, from the outset it looks that this scam is just the tip of the iceberg and there are more skeletons hidden in the Satyam closet, and when revealed the repercussions of the same can be easily acquire Titanic proportions...
