15 Biggest technology scandals of 2009
 

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The year 2009 was surely not one of the best years for the business world globally. The economic recession bruised companies of all sizes, big and small. However, it was not just the adverse financial climate that made the year tough for IT cos, but also a series of scandals that followed tech companies and its employees throughout the year.

A software giant drew flak for a racial ad, another's CEO admitted to the country's biggest corporate fraud, a $77-million fine was imposed on the top exec of a prominent handset maker. The list is quite long. Here's over to the 15 biggest scandals that rocked the technology world in 2009.

India's biggest corporate scam: Satyam
 

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In December 2008, Satyam CEO B Ramalinga Raju shocked the Indian IT world by admitting to have fudged the company's account. The revelation of what was the country's biggest corporate fraud left the company's employees and investors in a lurch.

After months of enquiry, CBI recently filed a supplementary charge sheet against Raju and nine others, pegging the Satyam fraud at Rs 14,000 crore instead of the Rs 7800 crore that Raju had owned up to in January this year.

The additional chargesheet, however, fails to nail Raju and aides on siphoning of funds from Satyam Computer, instead saying that the investigating agency was planning to file a separate chargesheet on the allegations of funds diversion and income-tax frauds within the next few days.

The 200-page chargesheet filed in the CBI court, charged the accused of forging board resolutions and unauthorisedly obtaining loans worth Rs 1220 crore from banks as well as inflating Satyam revenues to the tune of Rs 430 crore by creating fake customers and generating fake invoices.

The chargesheet also identifies 1065 properties with a documented value of Rs 350 crore that were acquired by the Rajus with the spoils of the fraud. These include 6,000 acres of land, 40,000 sq yd of housing plots and 90,000 sq ft of built-up property.

World Bank bans Wipro
 

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The World Bank published the names of all companies it bars from receiving Bank contracts. The list included three Indian firms including India's third largest IT services provider Wipro.

It said it has barred Wipro Technologies for four years for "improper benefits to bank staff". In 2008, World Bank banned Satyam for eight years for alleged malpractices, including bribery. The World Bank debarment was meted out for "improper benefits to bank staff" and "lack of documentation on invoices.”

Incidentally, World Bank had informed Wipro in June 2007 itself about its ineligibility to bid for the bank's direct contracts till 2011. The bank cited a conflict of interest policy.

$5 mn for H-1B visa fraud
 

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The US government reportedly filed an expanded indictment against an IT services company, Visions System, for fraudulently using H-1B visas.

According to a report, the US government alleged that the New Jersey-based IT services company paid H-1B workers based on Iowa's lower prevailing wage rates through the creation of shell firms in that state, and not the prevailing wage rates of the higher paying locations where they worked.

The report said that if federal prosecutors win their case against Visions System Group Inc, they will ask the court to approve $4.9 million in forfeited assets, an amount "representing the total amount of gross proceeds obtained as a result of offenses," the government said.

However, this amount is a reduction from the $7.4 million the US sought from Visions Systems in its initial indictment, filed earlier this year. The reduction was not explained in court documents.

Microsoft racist?
 

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Software giant Microsoft Corp altered a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company's US website showed two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the website of Microsoft's Polish business unit, the black man's head was replaced with that of a white man.
The colour of his hand remained unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland's ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.