Satyam, India's No. 4 software services exporter, has been battling for survival since Raju resigned as chairman earlier this month, revealing profits had been falsified for years and that $1 billion of cash on the books did not exist.

Investigators looking into the fraud have found a maze of about 300 companies related to Raju that were used to siphon as much as $1 billion in cash from Satyam, the report said, citing a senior official involved in the inquiry.

The article said the picture emerging from the investigation of Satyam is very different from the one painted by Raju in a letter to Satyam's board earlier this month.

In the letter, Raju said about $1 billion of Satyam's cash was "non-existent" and that he had falsified its profits for years to avoid losing control of the company.

Raju said neither he nor his brother, B. Rama Raju, who co-founded Satyam, "took even one rupee/dollar from the company."

The New York Times report, citing the person involved with the investigation, said the entire $1 billion Raju said was faked might have actually been earned by the company but then skimmed from it.

A spokesman for Satyam declined to comment on the report.

The report said Raju's lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha, editing by Maureen Bavdek)