Normally you think there is risk (income risk) only when you are in business, right?

What can be the risk if you are an employee? risk of losing your job (you can find another one), risk of your company closing down (another company will give you a job)….so really a person in service does not see much risk.

So your boss inflates expenses, inflates assets, shows excessive sundry debtors, pays less tax, falsifies tax and excise records – AND AS A CA you turn a blind eye. You tell yourself if I do not work for A, I will have to work for B. If A is dishonest, so will the others – B or otherwise! So you rationalize and turn a blind eye to the fraud transactions.

One day your boss decides to come clean (forget why that is a long story) and your boss is in Jail. He says he falsified books and you the CFO helped him. So the CFO is in jail. The Internal Audit head who is supposed to know all this, also goes to jail….

See the people who have been rotting in jail and sentenced to pay a fine:

Vadalamani Srinivas (CFO) has to pay Rs. 29.5 crores,

G Ramakrishna (VP Finance) has to pay Rs. 11.5 crores

Prabhakar Gupta (Internal Audit) has to pay Rs. 1.5 crores

This is so much like the Ratnakar – Valmiki story. For those who do not know that story:

There was a dacoit (Ratnakar) – and he met a Learned Man (Narada) and threatened to kill him. Narada asked him ‘What are you doing?’ So the dacoit said ‘I am a dacoit, I kill people, and loot them so that I can earn a living for my family’.

Narada told Ratnakar – by doing all this you are accumulating a lot of sins go and ask your family whether they will share the sins with you. So R went home and asked his family. His family said ‘It is your duty to provide, HOW YOU PROVIDE IS YOUR CONCERN’.

Ratnakar was shocked and he came running to Narada and narrated what happened. On that day Ratnakar was converted to Valmiki the Rishi.

Now you take today’s context. The learned, qualified man takes it upon himself to provide for the family. For doing this the man of the house takes on doing illegal things (everybody is doing it, if I do not do it here, I will have to do it elsewhere…etc), gets blood pressure (at age 30), diabetes (bad food habits is a big contributor), gets sleep deprived, travels at unearthly hours….

Who is going to share it with You?

Search me. And who is going to pay these fines? I have no clue, but if these guys earned ONLY a salary from Satyam, they are unlikely to have even a fraction of this amount. Also there is no incentive for Raju to pay these fines.

Employees, enjoy. The day you are caught, weep alone.