So here we go again: another day, another scandal and this time from India no less. If what we read from the reports is to be believed, then this S$1.5 billion Satyam corporate scandal is huge relative to the GDP of India.

Last Friday over dinner, a friend told me that when the river runs dry and the tide goes out, we will see who really is naked. How true. As it turns out, this Satyam river of supposed abundance, distinguished board members and corporate governance awards notwithstanding, was truly naked.

That its CEO, Ramalinga Raju climbed down from the tiger and came clean (did he?) was no consolation. He had no choice. To portray himself in his confessional letter as a sorry victim, trapped and afraid of being eaten by a tiger, just couldn't cut it with me.

He climbed up the tiger with his shareholders' money in the first place.

And now, his thousands of loyal employees face an uncertain future. But how did he do it? Until the results of the investigation by the various Indian authorities are made known, we can only guess although it is very hard for me to think that he did it single-handedly. It would be interesting to see who are in cahoots with him but we can only guess and the truth for now has to wait.

However, what is factual is that Satyam, being listed on the NYSE, must be 100% Sarbannes-Oxley compliant. The post Enron introduction of SOX was precisely meant to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen anymore. But it did and in absolute honesty (a rare commodity nowadays), I am not surprised.

So long as man and the corporate world worship power and money and they cannot control their pride and greed, they will dream up all kinds of ways to bend, jump and go around rules to get what they want - man's ingenuity misapplied if you like.

Sadly, there will be many more Satyams down the road.

[To Rajalinga Raju, if I may liberally borrow from Blake's The Tiger once again :
"In what furnace was thy brain.."]