We’ve covered the Olympus accounting scandal extensively over the past six months. Now prosecutors in Tokyo have carried out the first arrests.
Japanese authorities arrested seven people including former Olympus Chairman and CEO Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and former in-house auditor Hideo Yamada, as well as two former Nomura bankers, Akio Nakagawa and Nobumasa Yokoo, who ran Global Company, an investment firm alleged to be mixed up in the affair.
According to Massdevice, losses from bad investments were allegedly transferred to offshore accounts not directly connected with Olympus. In that way the losses would not appear on the endoscopy giant’s books. The scandal broke last October after the company sacked CEO Michael Woodford after just 2 weeks on the job, prompting Woodford (the company’s first non-Japanese leader) to go public.
Japanese authorities raided the homes and offices of Olympus employees in December. The men arrested yesterday could each serve up to 10 years if found guilty, according to the New York Times.
The New York Times article can be found here.
Source: New York Times, Massdevice