The Great Indian Fraud

Book excerpt: How do tax havens and syndicates running shell companies help fraudsters escape the long arm of the law? How does the ambiguity of valuation in the start-up ecosystem increase its vulnerability to corporate fraud? How are manufacturers and exporters from China exploiting India's Free Trade Area (FTA) with other countries to dump goods at artificially low prices in the Indian market? What challenges does the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China pose for regulators of India? Why do people fall for Ponzi and pyramid schemes again and again? Serious frauds affect society and economy in damaging ways, belittling the common man's trust in the system. Yet, barely do we understand how these affect our lives. A first-of-its-kind, The Great Indian Fraud reveals how all such frauds result from the manipulation of complex financial transactions, involving simple mathematics and tricks, to deceive regulators, enforcers, business partners and customers. Drawing on his experience in the fields of forensic audit and financial investigation, author Smarak Swain explains the modus operandi behind some of the most notorious cases of fraud-Haridas Mundhra, Jayanti Dharma Teja, Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh, Hasan Ali Khan, B. Ramalinga Raju, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and many more-narrating the rise and fall of the greatest fraudsters of our times. Informative and skilfully narrated, The Great Indian Fraud is a must-read to understand how frauds happen, how law enforcement agencies handle crises, the sectors that witness maximum frauds as well as the emerging sectors that are at high risk.