On January 7, 2009, B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, wrote to his board. He admitted that the company’s books showed cash and bank balances of Rs 5,361 crore, of which Rs 5,040 crore did not exist. “It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten,” he wrote.
In July 2010 his lawyers told a court that he had never written the letter.