Satyam's Fall from from Glory to Ashes:

The case, which is also called the Enron of India, dates back to 2009.

Ten years ago, Raju wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and his company’s
shareholders, admitting that he had manipulated the company’s earnings, and fooled investors.

Nearly $1 billion - or 94% of the cash - on the books was fictitious.

In an immediate reaction to the confession, investors lost as much as Rs.14,000 crore ($2.2 billion) as
Satyam’s shares tanked.

Raju explained his reasons for inflating earning in the letter thus: “As the promoters held a small
percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in a takeover, thereby exposing
the gap.

“What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of
accounts continued to grow over the years,” Raju said in the letter. “It has attained unmanageable
proportions as the size of the company operations grew significantly.

Raju was once the poster boy of India’s IT revolution—rubbing shoulders with top CEOs and politicians
across the world, including Bill Clinton.

Here’s a timeline of what went wrong at Satyam.

1987: Thirty three-year-old Raju establishes Satyam Computer with his brother and a brother-in-law in
Hyderabad.

1991: The company is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, where its initial public offering is
oversubscribed by as much as 17 times.

1993: Satyam Computer signs a deal with US-based Dun & Bradstreet to set up Dun & Bradstreet Satyam
Software. Satyam holds 24% stake in the venture, while Dun & Bradstreet holds the remaining. In 1996,
Satyam sells its stake to Dun & Bradstreet, ahead of a restructuring, and the new company is called
Cognizant Technologies.

1999: Satyam Infoway, a subsidiary of Satyam Computer, becomes the first Indian information and
communication technology company to be listed on Nasdaq, and Satyam expands footprint to 30
countries.

2006: Satyam’s revenues cross $1 billion. Raju becomes the chairman of industry body, The National
Association of Software and Services Companies.

2007: Raju is named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. The company bags contract to be the official
IT services provider of the FIFA World Cups in 2010 and 2014.

2008: Satyam’s revenues cross $2 billion. In December, the company decides to buy out Maytas Infra—
owned by Raju’s sons—for $1.6 billion. The deal falls through after investors and board members object,
and in a span of four days, four directors of the company quit. (Maytas is Satyam spelt backwards.)

January 2009: Satyam is barred from doing business with the World Bank for eight years. The World Bank
alleges that Satyam was involved in data thefts and staff bribery.
Shares fall to record low in four years. Satyam employees receive a letter from Raju admitting to the
fraud, following which he resigns as chairman.

Raju and his younger brother B Rama Raju are arrested by police, while the Indian government steps in
and disbands Satyam board.

June 2009: Tech Mahindra, owned by the Mahindra Group, and Satyam merge to form India’s fifth largest
IT exports company. The merged entity is called Mahindra Satyam.

November 2011: Raju gets bail from India’s supreme court after the CBI fails to file charge-sheet.

October 2013: India’s enforcement directorate files a charge-sheet against Raju and 212 others under
money-laundering charges.

July 2014: India’s market regulator SEBI bars Raju from the capital markets for 14 years, and also seeks
Rs1,849 crore as fine.

April 2015: The special CBI court holds Raju and nine other officials guilty of cheating. Among those held
guilty are two former partners at PwC.