重生 印度最大欺诈案受害者归来

Three years after a devastating fraud, Satyam, a technology firm, is back

三年前，一场欺诈案惊世骇俗；三年后，技术公司萨蒂扬归来

"DEAR Board Members, it is with deep regret and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice." Sent in January 2009, it was the sort of letter no company director wants to get. In it RamAlinga Raju, boss of Satyam—then India's fourth-biggest technology firm, with a glittering list of Western clients and a cabinet full of corporate-governance trophies-confessed he had cooked the books on an epic scale, while insisting he had not benefited personally.

"尊敬的董事会成员，我揣着良心通知你们以下事实，深表愧疚，负担重大。" 2009年1月公司的董事长收到这封信，但他们却宁愿没得到过。信中，萨蒂扬（印度第四大科技公司。该公司有一张引人夺目的西方客户名单，以及一个秘密完整的公司治理的奖杯）老总拉玛林伽•拉贾（Ramalinga Raju）坦言其曾做了大量的假账，但却坚称他本人并没有捞取任何好处。

Mr Raju was "the most perfect gentleman you could ever meet," says a former friend. He used a beguilingly simple trick, similar to that employed by fraudsters at Parmalat, an Italian firm that blew up in 2003. Bogus customer receipts were created. To make the balance-sheet match the juiced-up income statement, documents showing fictitious cash balances were cooked up too. Mr Raju organised the firm in self-contained silos so that no one else could put two and two together. Satyam's real profits and cash position, the letter admitted, were over 90% lower than the figures in the accounts. Within days its share price collapsed by about 90%.

"拉贾曾是你能遇到的最正直的君子，"一位旧友说道。他所用的欺诈手段既简单又能掩人耳目，和2003年一家丑闻爆发的意大利公司帕马拉特的诈骗犯所用的类似。为了使资产负债表与高涨的收入表相符合，他还编撰了虚假的现金余额文件。拉贾把组织公司的地点设在筒仓里以掩人耳目，这样一来，没有人能够根据事实情况推断出他做的"坏事"。该封信说，萨蒂扬的真实收益和资金状况比账目中的数额要低90%多。几天内，公司的股价下跌了90%左右。

For most firms that would mean a trip to the pearly gates. So it is a miracle that Satyam is still alive. Its finances look healthy. It should shortly be taken over by Tech Mahindra, now a 43% shareholder and part of Mahindra, one of India's best business houses. C.P. Gurnani, Satyam's chief executive, who will run the combined entity, has the cheerful air of a man who has successfully wrestled an alligator.

对于大多数公司而言，公司下跌了约90%的股票意味着到鬼门关走了一遭。故萨蒂扬能在此事中活下来可真是一个奇迹。其财政状况看起来并没有什么问题，公司也应当很快由马恒达科技公司（现在持有43%的股权，是印度最大的商业机构之一）接手管理。即将经营这家合并实体的萨蒂扬首席执行官C.P. Gurnani也摆出了一副斗败巨鳄的欣喜姿态。

Kiran Karnik-who has the rare habit of listening more than he speaks-was caretaker chairman for about five months after the scandal. He says the episode shows "India has the ability to get a big, troubled firm back on track," and yields some general lessons about corporate survival.

相比起倾听，基兰•卡尼克更习惯说话，在拉贾的绯闻传出后，他做了五个月左右的临时董事长。他说这件事表明印度有能力让大型却陷入困境的公司回归正轨，同时他也学到企业生存的一些基本教训。

First among those is not to pull the plug too soon. Although bankruptcy was an option, India's government, showing unusual deftness, instead chose to replace the board and take a chance that the firm could avoid receivership. A disorderly collapse would have hurt the reputation of the entire Indian technology industry, says Saurabh Srivastava, who co-founded Nasscom, a club of technology firms in India. Implicit state support was no doubt helpful, but this did not amount to a bail-out: Satyam had to raise bridge finance on its own from private-sector banks. By April 2009 the gamble had begun to pay off. After an auction, Tech Mahindra bought its stake and became an anchor investor.

第一条教训是公司不要太快的终止业务。尽管公司可以选择破产，但是印度政府展现出的不同寻常的处理事务的娴熟技巧使公司可以选择取代董事会成员，而且公司也有机会避免破产管理。与他人共同创立印度软件和服务业企业行业协会（Nasscom）的萨乌拉博•斯利瓦斯塔瓦（Saurabh Srivastava）说，企业衰败所带来的混乱会影响整个印度技术产业的声誉。尽管国家暗中支持肯定有所帮助，但是这种支持并不等于国家会担保破产。萨蒂扬必须自己从私人银行中筹集过桥资金。2009年4月，这场赌博要有结果了，一场拍卖会后，马恒达科技公司购买了萨蒂扬的股份，成为其主要投资者。

The second lesson is that survival is about people: customers and staff. In the weeks after the scandal broke Mr Karnik spent time meeting not just the bosses of client companies but also middle managers, to agree on yardsticks for judging Satyam's recovery. Mr Gurnani, who became chief executive in June 2009, says that in his first year he spent 250 days travelling, mainly seeing customers. Some trophy clients, including BP and Coca-Cola, jumped ship, but others, including GE, did not. A core of retained customers allowed the business to stabilise within a year or so.

第二条教训是公司要生存，顾客和员工不可少。在绯闻传出的几周里，为了达成恢复萨蒂扬所需要的尺码，破产的卡尼克不仅花时间会见了客户公司的老板，同时也会见了自己公司的中层管理人员。2009年6月成为萨蒂扬董事长的Gurnani说，在他担任的第一年里，他花费了250天的时间进行走访，其主要走访对象是客户。包括英国石油公司和可口可乐公司在内的一些大型客户都跳槽了，但是美国通用电气公司等却没有。许多核心顾客都留了下来，但他们要求萨蒂扬应在一年左右的时间内把公司的业务稳定下来。

The last lesson is about the importance of keeping the end-game in sight. Mr Karnik recalls that, within weeks of the collapse, government types suggested that the firm might stay independent after all. "I said it was like a vegetable-if you delay selling, the price will go down. If you leave it too long you'll have to pay someone to take it away." Mahindra's initial stake was a form of engagement. Now that Satyam is stabilised and most of its legal cases are resolved, Mahindra is ready for marriage.

最后是要牢记结束游戏的重要性。卡尼克回忆说，在公司溃败的几周内，政府认为萨蒂扬或许终究不受他人左右。"我说，这就像蔬菜，如果你延迟了它的销售，价格便会下跌；如果你把它放太久，那你就有必要花钱雇人来把这些蔬菜拿走。"马恒达的初始股权是以一种合约的形式存在。萨蒂扬事件既然已稳定下来，其大部分的法律案件也得以解决，所以马恒达准备把萨蒂扬给"娶过来"。

A full takeover makes sense. Satyam has strengths, including its people. Oddly for a self-confessed crook, Mr Raju invested in training. But the industry has moved on since 2009. Satyam's share of the top six firms' sales has fallen from 10% to 4%. An executive at a rival firm sniffs that it "is not really relevant" any more. Big-ticket customers have become far more important. TCS, India's biggest IT firm, now has 46 clients which spend over $50m a year. Satyam has four. Nimish Joshi of CLSA, a broker, worries that winning big deals or scaling up existing accounts will be tough.

全面收购在情理之中。萨蒂扬有其优势，如它的顾客和员工。奇怪的是，对于一个公开承认自己是骗子的人而言，拉贾却投资于训练。但自2009年以来，科技产业就不断向前发展。萨蒂扬拥有的前六大公司的销售额股份已从10%下跌至4%。一家对手公司的经理却嗤之以鼻，认为这没有关联。大客户变得更为重要。印度最大的信息技术公司印度塔塔咨询服务公司如今已有46位一年花费5000多万美元的客户。而这样的客户萨蒂扬有四个。里昂证劵公司（CLSA）的破产者尼米什•乔希担忧争取大型交易或是按比例放大现有账户都很困难。

Still, uniting Satyam with Tech Mahindra will create the fifth-largest Indian IT firm. Tech Mahindra has its own issues-it is skewed towards telecoms customers, which have been shrinking. Targets to double the combined firm's sales by 2015 look entirely unrealistic, but the hope is that its clout and expertise will allow it to claw its way back to the big league.

然而，若是把萨蒂扬和马恒达科技有限公司合并为一个公司，那它将会成为印度第五大科技公司。马恒达科技有自己的问题，即该公司偏向于电信客户，但是客户的数量却正在缩小。该公司制定的到2015年公司的总销售额翻两番的目标完全不现实，但希望仍在，而这希望就是凭借公司的影响力与专业能力让其重新成为本行业的佼佼者。

There are a few, very Indian, loose ends-a lawsuit by Mr Raju's relatives, who say they have lost out, and a claim by the taxman, who appears, ludicrously, to want to tax the fictional profits. But Satyam will soon disappear into its suitor's arms. That it has found a good home is not unusual-Enron's best bit is now owned by Warren Buffett, and WorldCom, another victim of a big accounting scandal, was picked up by Verizon, one of America's leading telecoms firms. But Satyam's shareholders have done unusually well, losing only about 75% of their money.

这起诈骗事件中还有一些事情未解决，如说自己亏本的拉贾亲戚们提起的诉讼，以及竟然荒唐地想要征收虚假利润税的收税员发表的声明。但是萨蒂扬不久后便消失在收购公司的怀抱之中。它寻到的好归宿并没有什么特别之处，安然公司最好的一块现在由沃伦•巴菲特所有，另外一家大型财务丑闻的受害者世界通信也已由美国领先的电信公司之一的威瑞森所购。但是萨蒂扬的股东们却做的很好，仅失去了自身75%的钱。

The mystery remains Mr Raju's motive. He awaits trial. For the moment the best insight comes from his letter of confession. "It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten."

拉贾的动机仍是一个谜。如今他还在候审中。而目前对此谜团最好的解释出自于他的悔过书。"这就像骑着一头老虎，你不知道如何从虎背上下来，还不要被吃掉."