With earnings in dollars from the software business, it was easy for Raju to divert the money to other businesses that his family was handling.  Meanwhile, the government has ordered investigation into all the companies under the satyam umbrella.  They are

Maytas Properties
Maytas Infra
Satyam BPO
Nipuna Services
Knowledge Dynamics
Nitor Global Solutions
CA Satyam AS
Satyam Venture Engineering Services

What’s more baffling is that the Hyderabad police is still waiting for someone to lodge a FIR against Raju before they can arrest him.  Its a known fact that Ramalinga Raju has his contacts in all the top places in politics.  His closeness to Chandra Babu Naidu and the current CM of Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhar Reddy is well known.  Is that the reason why the police is apprehensive about arresting Raju fully knowing that they might step on the toes of some very powerful people?

As for the most funniest news yesterday, it seems the Crime Branch – Criminal Investigative Department (CB-CID) wing of the Hyderabad police has no idea of how to investigate an economic crime.  So, they are willing to let the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) handle this.  The CBI has a wing that is completely dedicated to investigate such crimes. So much for law enforcement.

Here’s the catch: A 3% margin — which is what Raju said Satyam had actually made — is ridiculously low in the IT industry. Forget Infosys, which made 33% in the same quarter, all IT firms of similar or even smaller size make between 20% and 30%. There’s no way Satyam, which services 185 Fortune 500 firms, could have such a low profit margin, said every analyst we spoke to. What’s more, even people in Satyam dont believe Raju. TOI, in its Thursday edition, quoted a Satyam staffer saying, “His letter implies that we worked at a margin of 3%. That’s pure unadulterated crap.”

So, if Satyam was operating on a much higher margin, why would Raju choose to say it was actually much lower? The implication is that more money was coming into the company in the form of higher profit, but it was being siphoned out.

It’s a crime to show money in the books where none existed, which is what Raju said he did. But it’s a worse crime to take out money that actually did exist. There’s speculation that Raju was doing so in order to invest in other businesses such as real estate, and did intend to put it back in Satyam at some point of time, but possibly got into such a jam that he couldnt replenish the company’s coffers.

The 3% margin question was put to the interim CEO Ram Mynampati at a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday. He side-stepped the question.

Read the rest of the article here that indicates that Raju might not have been only responsible for inflating the cash in the books, but was in fact stealing the money made by Satyam and funnelling them into other businesses headed by members of his family.

If the above mentioned accusation can be proved by the law enforcement agencies, Ramalinga Raju is in for some serious trouble.  But like with every other offence that has occurred in our country, iam very pessimistic about Raju getting his just desserts. He might just walk off the hook and the lakhs of shareholders will be left clutching at the straws.  As for the supposedly 53,000 employees in Satyam, is it true that they really have so many employees?  Or was it another spin of the great crook called Ramalinga Raju?

Who knows?

Above cartoon from : Twenty22

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Satyam’s valuation of unlisted Maytas Properties is turning out to be a whodunit. The big four audit firms have denied any role in the
generous valuation of the private company owned by the Raju family. Satyam’s abortive attempt last week to acquire Maytas has turned into a blazing corporate governance controversy.

Satyam had said that one of the big four audit firms was the advisor to the board. And, based on this report, the board had proceeded with the acquisition of privately-owned real estate company of the Rajus for $1.3 billion (about Rs 6,240 crore).

In an email to ET, an E&Y spokesperson said, “I would like to reiterate that Ernst & Young was not involved with the Satyam-Maytas transaction.” ET received similar responses from PwC, Deloitte and KPMG. ET interacted with the spokespersons of PwC and Deloitte, while the KPMG spokesperson responded through an SMS.

Then, who valued Maytas? Satyam did not reply to an email asking the basis on which the land bank of Maytas Properties was valued at Rs 6,400 crore or Rs 1 crore per acre.

Real estate brokers said the valuation was done when the prices of land on the outskirts of Hyderabad was below Rs 10 lakh an acre due to the slump in real estate prices.

“Maytas Properties has three upcoming SEZs in Hyderabad and most are in the development phase. The firm also has properties in Nagpur, Chennai and cities in Andhra Pradesh such as Vizag. Putting these properties together, the maximum valuation could be Rs 3,500 crore.

Considering current market conditions, even this valuation may be a little extreme. But a valuation of Rs 6,240 crore is completely over the top,” a senior official with a leading property consultancy firm said.

An independent Satyam director had earlier told ET that the board relied on E&Y’s advice, something that has been denied by the audit firm. Satyam had to reverse its decision within 12 hours following protests by its investors across the world. Despite the cancellation of the Maytas transaction, the shares of Satyam crashed 33% to end at Rs 163 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday.

Above news from: Economictimes

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Maybe Raju rode his luck or was absolutely sure that his decision wouldnt be questioned by the shareholders. Its a victory for the minority shareholders. Under severe pressure by shareholders across the board, the decision to buy into Maytas had to be withdrawn.  It takes years to build up trust and a certain image in the market and with one silly move, Ramalinga Raju has poured water on all the hardwork.  A 30% hammering of the stock (on NSE) in one day will have shown Raju who the boss is and he better not take any such decisions in haste the next time.

Satyam announced the acquisition of the privately held Maytas Properties for $1.3 billion and increasing its stake in Maytas Infra to 51 per cent for $300 million. However, the company had to eat humble pie and withdrew its proposal due to strong opposition from shareholders.

The hasty retreat has dealt a severe blow to Satyam’s credibility and made it the laughing stock of the investor fraternity. Analysts said the deal was unethical as it aimed to bail out firms owned by promoter and chairman Ramalinga Raju’s sons. According to them, the company grossly overvalued the real estate and infrastructure firms, especially at a time when the two sectors were not in a good shape.

Full article here

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