Ramalinga Raju held guilty in Satyam fraud: How the scam unfolded

NEW DELHI: Touted as the country’s biggest accounting fraud, the Satyam Computer scam came to light on January 7, 2009, after B Ramalinga Raju allegedly confessed to manipulating his company’s account books and inflating profits over many years to the tune of crores of rupees.

Here's how it panned out

2008 December 16: Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju announces plan to buy Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties (Satyam spelt backwards) owned by his sons for $1.6 billion. On the day following the announcement, the prices of Satyam shares fell precipitously. The uproar created by the announcement led to immediate withdrawal of the proposal by the Satyam board.

December 23: World bank bars Satyam from doing business for 8 years due to data theft and charges of paying bribes to its staff. Shares see their lowest slump in 4 years.

December 26: Massive exits happen in the firm. Board member Mangalam Srinivasan puts his papers followed by exits of members Vinod Dham, Krishna Palepu.

December 30: Satyam invites bids for a 51 per cent stake after Sebi waives mandatory floor price for the auction.

2009 January 7: Satyam's i-bank DSPML meets Sebi, informs about accounting irregularities. Ramalinga Raju resigns, discloses a Rs 7000-crore accounting fraud in balance sheets about cash which never existed in the company.

January 8: Satyam's bank Citibank freezes its 30 accounts. Interim CEO Ram Mynampati says company in severe cash crunch and may not be able to pay salaries. Satyam's auditor PwC faces ire.

January 9: Ramalinga Raju and his younger brother B Rama Raju arrested. Central Govt disbands Satyam board, to appoint its own 10 directors.

January 10: Satyam's largest investor Lazard seeks a nomination board. SEBI grills Raju.



2012 March 21: Tech Mahindra, the information technology (IT) arm of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), completes merger with Satyam Computer Services, creating the fifth-largest IT company based in India, four years after acquiring the Hyderabad-based firm.

2014 July 16: Sebi bans Satyam's Ramalinga Raju for 14 years from market; asks for Rs 1849 crore

December 8: Ramalinga Raju, Rama Raju, Vadlamani Srinivas and former director Ram Mynampati were sentenced to six months jail term and fined by the Special Court for Economic Offences in connection with complaints filed by Serious Fraud Investigation Office ( SFIO) for violation of various provisions of the Companies Act.

2015 April 09: All accused guilty of fraud including then chairman Ramalinga Raju. Special CBI court finds Raju guilty of cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust. The punishment will be pronounced tomorrow.