Satyam, 'India's Enron,' faked $1.5 billion in cash and profits — until the founder.

Satyam Computer Services was one of India's most admired IT outsourcing firms, a blue-chip company listed in New York and Mumbai and a symbol of India's technology rise. Its founder and chairman, Ramalinga Raju, was celebrated as a visionary. Behind the scenes, however, the company's accounts had been fabricated for years.

On January 7, 2009, Raju stunned the business world with a confession: he had been inflating Satyam's profits and cash balances, and the company's books showed about $1.5 billion (₹7,136 crore) in cash that did not exist. The fraud had been carried out by faking bank statements and inflating revenues and margins. Raju resigned, comparing his predicament to 'riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.'

The confession collapsed Satyam's share price and triggered a crisis of confidence in Indian corporate governance — the company became known as 'India's Enron.' The Indian government intervened to stabilize the company, which was later acquired by Tech Mahindra. Raju and other executives were convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison. The scandal prompted sweeping reforms in Indian auditing and corporate governance.