Which Satyam founder admitted in 2009 to falsifying the Indian company’s accounts?

B. Ramalinga Raju admitted in 2009 to falsifying Satyam Computer Services’ accounts.

Raju founded Satyam in 1987 and built it into one of India’s major information-technology companies. On 7 January 2009, he wrote to the company’s board saying that profits, cash balances, and other financial figures had been overstated for years. He described the problem as a growing gap between the company’s reported position and reality.

The admission triggered a major crisis in Indian corporate governance. Satyam’s board was dismissed, the government appointed a new board, and Tech Mahindra later acquired a controlling stake. The company was eventually rebranded as Mahindra Satyam before being merged into Tech Mahindra.

The scandal is often called “India’s Enron,” but the companies and legal cases were separate. In 2015, an Indian court sentenced Raju and several others to prison in connection with the accounting fraud.