Sixteen years after he founded Satyam, B Ramalinga Raju allegedly began work on building another, more shadowy empire: channeling 'salaries' of non-existent Satyam employees into land purchases by ghost companies, and forging bank statements and NBFC certificates to hoodwink auditors.

By the time the scandal exploded in India Inc.'s face, Raju had allegedly diverted a massive stash of Satyam's money to his empire of fraud - siphoning off, on an average, Rs 20 crore every month, cash that was shown in Satyam's books as the salary bill of nearly 13,000 employees who did not, in fact, exist.

Ramalinga Raju began to open hundreds of salary accounts every month in the names of fictitious Satyam staff. In random 'recruitment drives' in campuses, Satyam offered jobs to thousands, but no appointment letters were ever issued. On paper, Satyam's workforce swelled to 53,000, though the actual number was no more than 40,000. 'Salary accounts' however, continued to be opened, and 'salaries' were deposited in them.

The money in these accounts flowed to benami companies and real estate fronts who bought up vast swathes of land, mainly in Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Hyderabad, mostly through real estate broker Akula Rajaiah, the CID's Public Prosecutor K. Ajay Kumar told the court of the Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate here today.

Just wandering what as Raju upto, everyday some astonishing facts keep coming up about the intensity of the fraud.