CORRUPTION ALERT : Top 7 Biggest Scams of India in the Last Five Years

We have all witnessed significant political and financial scams/frauds in our nation for many years that have included sums of money totaling millions of dollars. And these are only the ones that have been made public; let’s not even discuss the ones that have yet to come to light.

With such a large amount of money at their disposal, one is left to wonder if India would still be in the developing stage today if the funds had been applied to their intended purposes.

A list of the TOP 7 largest frauds that have recently affected our nation is provided below,

1. SATYAM SCAM – Rs 14,000 crore

The 14,000 crore Satyam scam represents the largest fraud to date in the Indian corporate sector. Ramalinga Raju, the disgraced former chairman, is accused of faking the books of accounts for a number of years and inflating Satyam’s revenue and profit figures. After failing in his attempts to replace the “fictitious assets with genuine ones” through Maytas acquisition, he made the decision to come out and admit his guilt. The fourth-largest IT company in India saw its market capitalization plummet by a startling Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion), as investors quickly sold off their shares, driving the price of the stock down by 78 percent to Rs 39.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange in a single day.

2. BOFORS SCAM – Rs 64 crore

The Bofors scandal is regarded as the epitome of corruption in India. Rajiv Gandhi, who was prime minister at the time, along with other individuals, notably the influential NRI family known as the Hindujas, were charged with accepting payments from Bofors AB in exchange for gaining the contract to deliver India’s 155 mm field howitzer. A shocking story concerning an undercover operation by Bofors, Sweden’s largest arms manufacturer, in which it is claimed that $16 million was paid to members of PM Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress, was broadcast by the Swedish State Radio.

3. HARSHAD MEHTA SCAM – Rs 5,000 crore

By trading shares at a premium across various categories in 1992, Harshad Mehta, often known as the Big Bull, took advantage of the banking system’s flaws and helped the Bombay Stock Exchange rise. Between April 1991 and May 1992, he and his friends transferred money from banks to stockbrokers totaling about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion). Later, he was accused with 72 criminal offences.

4. THE COLGATE SCAM – Rs 1.86 Lakh Crore

A political scandal known as “Coalgate” or the coal allocation fraud first broke in 2012, when the UPA administration was in power. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), who accused the government of improperly assigning 194 coal blocks between 2004 and 2009, brought the scheme to light. As many bureaucrats and politicians were engaged, this was one of the frauds that rocked the entire country. The final report stated that the scandal cost Rs 1.86 lakh crore, despite the CAG’s initial estimate of a loss of nearly Rs 10 lakh crore.

5. THE VIJAY MALLYA SCAM

Vijay Mallya was once known as the “King of Good Times,” but things for him are currently anything but good. We’re talking about Vijay Mallya, the tycoon of alcohol. After being charged with fraud and money laundering in the nation in 2016, Mallya fled the country and sought asylum in the UK. Vijay Mallya is said to owe several banks around Rs 9000 crores for a loan he took to prevent the failure of his now-defunct Kingfisher airlines. According to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, he was recently designated a fugitive economic offender.

6. 2G SPECTRUM SCAM

When it was claimed in 2008 that the government had undercharged mobile phone companies for the frequency allocation licences used to create 2G spectrum subscriptions, A. Raja, the former telecom minister, was at the centre of the controversy. According to the CAG reports the gap between the money obtained and that mandated to be collected was Rs. Rs. 1,76,000 crore. More than 120 licences were revoked in 2012 after the Supreme Court deemed the spectrum to be “unconstitutional and arbitrary.”

7. THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES SCAM

In 2010, the controversy and corruption surrounding the Indian Commonwealth Games garnered more media attention than the actual competition. The 2010 Common Wealth Games chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, was charged with fraud, forgery, and criminal conspiracy, which cast a shadow over the entire event. It was also claimed that the Indian athletes were denied the accommodations provided by the government and were instead made to live in abhorrent conditions.