by RV Raman
The colour slowly rose in his cheeks. His expression grew resolute, lending definition to his features. His eyes blazed.
‘But I will not throw in the towel,’ he declared. ‘We haven’t worked so hard to let it go without a fight. We are the victims, not the culprits. We will see this through!’
Gautam rose.
‘I’m going to Mumbai now,’ he said, his face set in hard lines. ‘For the most difficult meeting of my life – I must confront my brother.’
Epilogue
Within 48 hours of meeting Daniel, Sanjay Khanna’s investigations at PRL confirmed that the company had suppressed no transactions. PRL’s systems and accounting were squeaky-clean.
The very next day, MyMagicHat, the wounded unicorn, filed a legal case against the 37 IRs, suing them for damages. Not that Gautam harboured any expectations of receiving any monies from the shell companies whose profits had already been siphoned off. But the action was central to the stance he had taken – that MyMagicHat was a victim, not a culprit.
A fortnight later, the forensic investigators appointed by Sashikant gave their judgement – neither MyMagicHat nor PRL were at fault. The deception had been carried out entirely by the 37 IRs.
Nevertheless, the unicorn’s valuation – at least, perceived valuation – crashed. No formal valuation had been done, but industry watchers gleefully professed that it was down by 90 per cent, if not more. Employees who had banked on their share options were inconsolable and the private equity firms that had invested in the e-tailer came in for unprecedented pressure from their investors.
In the face of such setbacks, Gautam’s PR exercise was relentless and unceasing, as he vowed that their company would continue serving customers despite being cheated by sellers. He gave dozens of interviews, where his sincerity came through to save the brand from complete ruin. With absolute conviction, he stated, time and again, that the brand was still worth investing in.
Backing that up, Sashikant made a large investment at an undisclosed valuation, a valuation that had been approved by MyMagicHat’s board and investors. The idea was to keep the e-tailer ticking as it navigated the morass. If it didn’t, the hundreds of millions that had been invested into the e-tailer would be worth nothing.
On its part, PRL pushed hard, leaning on all resellers to sell on MyMagicHat. It surrendered its margin and gave it to the resellers, encouraging them to share the benefit with customers.
The e-tailer’s reputation began looking up and PRL’s aggressive pricing brought back customers. The opportunistic among them rushed to take advantage of the pricing, which they knew couldn’t last forever. To assure them that it remained a top-notch e-tailer, MyMagicHat fulfilled the orders with precision and speed.
Meanwhile, Vikram quietly resigned from Kantoff Capital. What had transpired between him and Nigel behind closed doors was never known, but whispered speculation had it that Vikram might have benefited in some way. Whether that was, indeed, the case or he had simply become a victim of malicious rumours remained unclear. His lack of friends at Kantoff didn’t help in providing conclusive answers.
Dhruvi moved quickly to tie up the loose ends of the first major case of her career. She had Najeeb identify Nathan as the man who had stabbed Moin to death. She also had one of Nathan’s companions confess to having dropped him near the mosque and picked him up from there. She then produced phone records between Nathan and Darshan to seal the case with circumstantial evidence. Before the week was over, the case against Nathan for killing Moin had become water-tight.
Dhruvi also charged Nathan and his accomplices with Vibha’s attempted murder and the unlawful detention of Puneet and Nitya, who had identified the men, slapping additional charges for assaulting the two in captivity. There was little doubt that the men would be found guilty, in varying degrees, of an entire range of criminal acts, even if it took years to convict them. It was also clear from the phone records that they had been taking orders from Darshan.
It was unclear, however, whether Darshan had ordered the criminal acts of his own volition or had done so on Dilip’s orders. With Darshan dead by his own hand, nothing in this regard could be proven one way or the other. Though Darshan’s phone records showed that he had made several calls to a handful of untraceable numbers, the evidence was inconclusive. None of those numbers could be located. Dilip was fated to live under a cloud of suspicion for the rest of his life.
The horror of Dilip’s reaction to the acts Darshan had carried out and the sincerity he had evinced at family meetings had left Gautam undecided, but Sashikant had chosen to believe his son, at least as far as the murder was concerned. That Dilip was guilty of the fake transactions and of siphoning off money from the 37 IRs – of that there was no doubt. He would face the consequences of those crimes.
The Enforcement Directorate began investigating Dilip’s alleged round-tripping of money, but encountered jurisdiction-related hurdles from the very first day. Where the investigation would end up was anyone’s guess.
Vibha was released from the hospital two days later.
After an initial pause of surprise, Nilay’s friends welcomed him warmly into their fold, jokingly describing the way he had been absolved of all culpability as ‘the return of the prodigal’. November and December would become the months of reunions for Nilay, with many a celebration to mark them.
As the New Year came around, he was heard grudgingly acknowledging at a party that the scam had indeed been a water-tight one; one that would have continued undetected, but for a petty crime by a lowly data centre operator…
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM HACHETTE INDIA
Fraudster
RV RAMAN
A YOUNG BANKER is found dead a day after she deposes before a commission investigating large-scale financial fraud…
A DOYEN OF CORPORATE INDIA falls to his death from his south
Bombay flat…
A HIGH-SECURITY SERVER ROOM of a multinational accounting firm is hacked, and the hackers aren’t just looking for company secrets…
Illicit finance, high-stakes crime and vicious manipulation come together in this story of corruption, greed and treachery among corporate India’s black sheep.
Arresting, fast-paced and written by an insider from the corporate world, Fraudster will keep you on your toes till the very end.
For further details and information, please visit www.hachetteindia.com
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM HACHETTE INDIA
Insider
RV RAMAN
A SOFTWARE ENGINEER goes missing in the Baltic.
AN UNSCRUPULOUS STOCKBROKER is audaciously murdered in a crowded bar room.
A HOTSHOT CEO is accused of insider trading.
Racing between the boardroom, a stockbroking firm and a shattered family, Insider is a gritty tale of duplicity and avarice, manipulation and murder, that takes you into the murky depths of the Indian stock market and data analytics, where profit is the only goal, and money the only language.
For further details and information, please visit www.hachetteindia.com
RV Raman is the bestselling author of Fraudster and Insider, and was the head of KPMG’s Consulting Practice and the co-head of their Risk Advisory Services. He was also a partner at A.T. Kearney and Arthur Andersen. Over a career spanning three decades and four continents, he has advised several banks, financial institutions, regulators, stock exchanges and corporates on matters of strategy, operations and risk management.
He currently teaches business strategy at IIM Trichy, mentors young entrepreneurs and advises select clients. He lives in Chennai and can be reached through his website www.rvraman.com. Saboteur is the third novel in his corporate thriller series that explores white-collar crime in India.
Saboteur
AN E-COMMERCE FIRM finds itself targeted by corporate espionage.
A PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR vanishes without a trace.
A KEY EMPLOYEE is murdered in cold blood.
MyMagicHat, a high-value, supercharge
d Bengaluru–based e-retailer is about to take an unprecedented gamble that will change the ecommerce market in the country forever. But, suddenly, things start to go awry just as the company unexpectedly runs out of cash. To make matters worse, a massive data theft follows, causing panic among investors.
Is someone trying to kill the company?
When Inspector Dhruvi Kishore is brought in to investigate the incidents, she finds that in the dog-eat-dog world of e-retailing, crime, too, is driven by technology. Hidden in mountains of data and unverified claims lie clues that lead her to unearth a massive fraud – one that justifies anything. Even murder.
www.hachetteindia.com
