>>>Hi Terry
>>>
>>>>So this is how India funds her space programme - on cummulated rounding errors?
>>>
>>>We also have VAT, Central Sales Tax, Service Tax, Income Tax, Securities Transaction Tax, Octroi, the list goes on plus Education Cess of 2% on each of these amounts.
>>>
>>>We have recently got the Rights to Information Act in place, hope it reveals the usage of funds :)
>>
>>There was a famous case in an America finacial institution several years ago, where an accountant (I think) was syphoning off all the wee fracion of cents rounding errors into his private bank account. He was becoming a millionaire. It was never detected (no-one missed them) but he later lost his nerve, realising the enormity of it all, and confessed.
>
>That must have been in the seventies. That's when I first read about it. And back then it wasn't him losing his nerve, but his girlfriend buying a Ferrari or some such act that tipped him off.

When you say "tipped him off" what do you mean - "gave him the heads up"? He already knew what he was doing. I don't know if this was the same case, but it is a bit vague after a few decades, as I remember that he lost his nerve - tat's all.