Did Raju ( Ex Chairman of Satyam ) commit a crime?

After he recently resigned from the Company as Chairman with a letter to Board Members, Stock Exchanges, SEBI etc., heated arguments started floating around as to whether Mr. Ramalinga Raju should be considered a criminal or not. $1-$2 Billion accounting fraud that he says he committed in Satyam are rousing passions. There are some who say his contributions to the society have been so great, he has let down everyone, but he did not commit any crime. I seriously disagree and below are my thoughts.

Let there be no confusion, I admired Mr. Raju's contribution to soceity. He was one of the torch bearers of Indian IT boom. His philanthropic efforts were matched by only very few in the country. He gave direct jobs to 53000+ people, which pumped money into economy supporting may be few millions of livelihoods. Tax revenues from his company, his employees to the State and Central Govt were significant.

So why do I feel he committed a crime?

There are two different aspects. First, Mr. Raju did make tremendous contribution to the society. In addition, Mr. Raju committed fraud affecting lives of hundreds of thousands around the World. Was Mr. Raju a good man? Yes! But, did Mr. Raju falsified certain facts which were so huge that many lives are getting crushed? Yes! Did Mr. Raju leave a lasting impact on the opportunities of graduates coming in future? Yes! Did Mr. Raju changed the opinion of world about India Inc in a negative way? Yes! Will that affect future investments into India, resulting in fewer jobs? Yes! Will that affect the decision of global companies when looking to award multi million dollar projects to Indian IT Companies? Yes!

Because someone helped a neighbour, does not absolve him/her of the harm he committed on another.

I will give some examples on how his actions are directly hurting lives. A small IT consulting firm had few employees. One of them was working for Satyam, i.e. Satyam placed him at its customer. For those who don't know, the way it works is, Satyam charges its customer for the services of this employee, and pays this small consulting firm. The firm in turn pays the salary to its Employee. Usually the payments are delayed by 60 days. But this time, in December, payments were delayed by 4 months. This small consulting firm owner paid salary out of his pocket. Satyam owes around $85k. When the news of accounting fraud came out, the owner was aghast. $85,000 is too big a money. Very few in US make that kind of money in a whole year (average US incomes are considered to be in $45k range). The owner fired the Employee right away ( Employee's struggles will be another heart wrenching story ) and holding his head as to how he can come out of this mess.

The sad part is, Mr. Raju did not have to do it. He had every thing anyone can ever ask for. The respect, fame, money, power.....