When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

07 January 2009

Countdown to India's version of Sarbanes-Oxley in 5... 4... 3...

Looks like India is having its very own Enron/Arthur Andersen moment, but this time the players are Satyam and PricewaterhouseCoopers:
The chairman of India’s Satyam Computer Services resigned on Wednesday after confessing to fixing the IT outsourcing company’s books for the past “several” years, the country’s first major fraud case to emerge following the global financial crisis.

In a letter to Satyam’s board, B Ramalinga Raju admitted wildly inflating Satyam’s margins to paint a picture of good performance and retain his management position, in one of the worst scams to have hit India’s outsourcing sector.

“It was like riding a tiger, not knowing when to get off without being eaten,” Mr Raju said, explaining how the fraud got out of control over a period of years.

Satyam is India’s fourth biggest IT outsourcing firm by revenue and is listed in New York and Mumbai, and the scam has rocked the country’s business world.
Satyam chief admits to falsifying books (Financial Times, 7 January 2009)

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