As the verdict on the Satyam case was announced Thursday morning, we take a look at some of the biggest corporate frauds in India. Â
1. Harshad Mehta Scam: In one of the biggest frauds in Indian stock markets, Harshad Mehta, and his associates took advantage of the many loopholes in the banking system to manipulate the rise in BSE in 1992. They drained off funds from inter-bank transactions, later using them to buy huge amounts of shares at a premium, causing the Sensex to rise dramatically. However, after the scam was exposed, banks started demanding their money back, which made the Sensex plunge dramatically. Eventually, Mehta was charged with 72 criminal offences while over 600 civil action suits were filed against him. This scam also inspired Sameer Hanchate’s Bollywood film, Gafla.
2. CRB Scam: While the Harshad Mehta Scam was being exposed, another one lay in its founding phase. CR Bhansali created attractive schemes such as FDs, MFs and debentures via nonexistent firms and invested that money in stocks for personal gains. This was one of the biggest scams to rock the country, where Bhansali managed to siphon off Rs.1,200 crore. The scam was eventually discovered in 1996, but action by the RBI and the government was seen as unsatisfactory. This scam highlighted the need for better regulation of the financial and banking sector in order to protect individual investors.
3. Cobbler scam: In yet another example of the misuse of benefits for the underprivileged, a multi crore shoe scam by Sohin Daya of Dawood Shoes took advantage of government loans through various schemes. Daya, along with Rafique Tejani and Kishore Signapurkar created several fake leather cooperative societies and availed loans of crores of rupees on behalf of these. Â Â The scam was exposed in 1995, and officials of the Maharashtra State Finance Corporation, Citibank, Bank of Oman, Dena Bank, Development Credit Bank, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, and Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait were also charge sheeted.
4. DSQ Software: Dinesh Dalmia, the Managing Director of DSQ Software Limited, was arrested by the CBI for his involvement in a stocks scam of Rs. 595 crore. Dalmia  used illegal ways to make money through the partly paid shares of DSQ Software Ltd, in the name of New Vision Investment Ltd, UK, and unallotted shares in the name of Dinesh Dalmia Technology Trust. Investigations discovered that 1.30 crore shares of DSQ Software Ltd had not been listed on any stock exchange.
5. Virendra Rastogi: The Chief Executive of RBG Resources was accused of deceiving banks worldwide of an estimated $1 billion. Besides these, he was also involved in the duty-drawback scam to the tune of Rs 43 crore (Rs 430 milion) in India. The CBI said that five companies, whose directors were Rastogi along with his three brothers, exported bicycle parts during 1995-96 to Russia and Hong Kong by heavily over invoicing the value of goods for claiming excess duty draw back from customs.