Satyam scam: All you need to know about India's biggest IT fraud

Satyam Computers founder Byyraju Ramalinga Raju and his brother B Rama Raju, who are serving a seven-year prison term in the Satyam scam, were on Monday granted bail by the Hyderabad High Court for a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh. The eight other accused in the case were also given bail for a personal bond of Rs 50,000, each.

60-year-old Raju had a fairytale rags-to-riches story during the boom period of IT sector in 2000s. Given the growth of the company, no one could suspect him of the Rs 7136 crore accounting scam that was uncovered in 2009.

Raju had targeted $12 billion turnover by 2012 for his company as compared to Tata Consultancy Services, India's top IT firm that posted revenues of $13.4 billion in 2014.

Considered the blue-eyed boy of India's IT sector in 2000s, he saw outsourcing opportunities from foreign clientele in US and Europe and went on a hiring spree by thousands. Satyam Computers was listed not only on Indian stock exchange but also on New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Satyam Computers nosedived to Rs 40 in April 2009 from Rs 542.

Here's a cheat sheet for you on the scam:

1.    Tagged as 'India's Enron' it is considered as the country's biggest corporate fraud scam. Enron was US-based energy, commodities, and services company that reported revenues of $111 billion in 2000 before an accounting fraud was discovered at the company in 2001.

2.    Raju was the chairman of erstwhile Satyam Computers from 1987 to 2009, till the fraud - that included Rs 5,040 crore non-existent cash and bank balance - was discovered. Raju founded the company with 20 employees in Secunderabad. He confessed to the fraud in 2009 and the case was investigated by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

3. Raju and nine other accused are lodged in Cherlapally Central Prison in Andhra Pradesh, to serve their seven-year rigorous imprisonment. The accused were convicted on April 9 this year with the sentence and a fine of Rs 5.35 crore on Raju and his brother-in-law and Rs 25 lakh each on the rest.

4. Apart from his brother B. Rama Raju, the eight convicts are former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas, S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas (both Pricewaterhouse Partners), B Suryanarayana Raju, G Ramakrishna, G Venkatapathi Raju, Ch Srisailam and VSP Gupta. They were all working in the finance department of the erstwhile Satyam Computers. The ten convicts were accused of inflating company's revenues, filing false income tax returns and fabricating account-related documents. The Indian arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers was fined Rs 38.49 crore for laxity in auditing the accounts of the IT company.

5. After the embezzlement was discovered in 2009, Satyam Computers was taken over by Tech Mahindra in an auction.