Case Study: Satyam Computers, A Beginner's Introduction to Corporate Fraud

On 7 January 2009, B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, wrote to his board admitting that the company's books had been falsified for years and that over ₹5,000 crore of cash on its balance sheet did not exist. Satyam was then India's fourth largest IT services company, listed on the NSE, BSE and the New York Stock Exchange, with a board of respected independent directors and a Big Four auditor. This course tells the story from the ground up for readers with no accounting background. You learn just enough balance sheet and profit and loss basics to follow the fraud, then see how fake invoices, fictitious bank balances and the failed Maytas deal fitted together, why the fraud triangle explains Raju's choices, how the share price collapsed, and what the government rescue, the Tech Mahindra takeover and the court cases achieved. It closes with the reforms Satyam triggered and a simple screening routine using annual reports, exchange filings and Screener.in that any retail investor or student can apply to a listed Indian company.