Olympus Cooked Books, Hid $1.7 Billion in Losses
Rotten to the core… but not in the same league with the Yakuza. That’s the verdict of a probe into Olympus, the disgraced Japanese company.
“In our investigation, we could not find any links to antisocial forces.”
Investigators, speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, said corrupt executives cooked the books and hid nearly $1.7 billion in losses.
The lack of a criminal link means Olympus has a much better chance of staying listed and avoiding an asset sale. But its problems are far from over…
It still has to meet a December 14 deadline to iron out its accounts. And it’s sitting down with creditor banks two days after that.
The other big unknown is sacked CEO, Michael Woodford.
He’s mounted an activist campaign to replace the Board with his own team – a rare event in Japan’s sleepy corporate culture.
“It would be a sad tale, wouldn’t it, if you do the right thing and you’re not wanted back because you exposed at the moment… false accounting on a grandiose scale.”
So while Olympus may have avoided the guillotine, for now its fate still hangs in the balance.
Bottom line: An Olympus probe reveals corrupt executives cooked the books but is not in the same league with Yakuza.
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