He paid the bulk of the money to himself by writing cheques against fake invoices. His luck ran out after the Indian Express newspaper exposed the scam. He quickly went underground and was suspended by the Bihar government. Earlier this year, he was arrested and is now behind bars, along with 10 others involved in the fraud. Since his arrest, his involvement in another scam has surfaced. He is alleged to have siphoned off an additional 15 million rupees meant for employment generation schemes to non-existent non-governmental organisations.

Military guns under fire
Former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Lisandro Abadia was charged with corruption in July for allegedly amassing cash and property worth more than C$300,000 when he was chief of staff from 1991 to 1993. The Office of the Ombudsman said the retired general`s assets were `manifestly out of proportion to his salary`.

In his defence, Abadia claimed he had sold real estate to augment his income but was not able to submit any proof.

He is by far the highest-ranking former officer booked for corruption under President Arroyo`s campaign to weed out corruption in the armed forces, as well as the fifth officer to have been indicted for graft by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Others include former armed forces top financial officer Major-General Carlos Garcia, who is on trial for allegedly plundering 130 million pesos using his position as Comptroller.

High-rolling fraudster
In Singapore`s biggest corporate fraud case, the finance manager of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) swindled banks of a record C$115 million over four years to feed his gambling habit.

Just a week after joining APB on Jan 20, 1999, Chia Teck Leng, 46, devised a plot to fraudulently obtain credit facilities from a foreign bank. The high-roller was facing mounting gambling debts and owed several banks about C$100,000 in overdrafts and credit card dues. He faked documents to get four foreign banks to extend him credit, claiming he was acting for his company, then forged the signatures of APB directors.

The Commercial Affairs Department nabbed him in 2003. By then, Chia had blown more than C$60 million in casinos worldwide. He was sentenced to 42 years` jail, the longest jail term ever meted out for a commercial crime.Now behind bars, he is writing his memoirs of his high-rolling days as a cautionary tale.

Bank of China looted
The Bank of China scandal saw nearly four billion yuan (about C$800 million) being siphoned from one of China`s biggest state-owned commercial banks.

Between 1992 and 2001, in the small manufacturing town in Guangdong province, a branch manager of the Bank of China, Xu Chaofan, was masterminding the flow of funds out of the bank, with the aid of two fellow managers. He opened a shell company, Ever Joint Properties, in 1993 to speculate in stocks and real estate in Hong Kong.

It was only after the three left China in October 2001 for Canada, that their misdeeds were discovered. In February last year, Yu pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in a Las Vegas court.

He was deported, on condition that he be sentenced to no more than 12 years in jail and not be tortured or executed. So far, only less than 0.1 per cent of the funds has been recovered by the US government and returned to China.

Misuse of Haj funds
Indonesian laws dictate that the Haj pilgrimage funds must be kept in a single account and used for the benefit of pilgrims during their stay in Saudi Arabia.

However, funds of 680 billion rupiah (about C$110 million) at the Religious Ministry were found to have been deposited into a number of bank accounts, some of which had nothing to do with the pilgrimage. Between 2001 and last year, 100s of irregularities were discovered in the expense books - among them bribes to journalists, travel expenses of legislators and a fictitious donation of 200 million rupiah to a place of worship in Palembang, Sumatra.The case came to light this year only when the Development Finance Controller submitted an audit report on the irregularities in the Religious Ministry`s Haj fund management.

Two top officials -- former religious minister Said Agil Hussein Al-Munawar and former director-general for Muslim affairs and Haj management Taufik Kamil -- have been detained.