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CBI on how the Satyam fraud was pulled off

Text: A Correspondent in New Delhi

April 27, 2009

The financial fraud perpetrated by the founders of Satyam Computer Services was executed through a well-planned accounting system that used as many as 7,561 fraudulent invoices worth Rs 5,117 crore (Rs 51.17 billion) to inflate the company's sales, the Central Bureau of Investigation alleged Monday.

Using cyber forensic techniques, the CBI deciphered the modus operandi of the Satyam fraud: that is generating false invoices to show inflated sales by the IT company.

The accused had used an emergency option of feeding invoices directly to the company's inventory management software, which in normal circumstances would be routed and validated through several software systems.

Image: Ramalinga Raju, jailed chairman of Satyam Computer Services. | Photograph: PK/CC/Reuters

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