No Sign Of Yakuza Involvement In Olympus Scandal: Panel Report

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 7 December 2011

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07 December 2011

An investigative panel, led by a former Supreme Court judge, has uncovered no evidence of any involvement by organised crime groups in Olympus’s years-long cover-up of investment losses, with its report describing Olympus’s management as just being “rotten to the core.”

In its report issued on Tuesday, the company-commissioned panel found that Olympus executives had broken multiple Japanese laws for nearly two decades in order to investment losses of up to $1.67 billion.

“The management was rotten at the core and some around were contaminated as well,” said the 185-page report, as cited by the Financial Times. “Olympus should remove its malignant tumour and literally renew itself.”

Related: Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Dumps Stake In Olympus

Related: Buffett Could Turn To Japan For Next Big Investment

Though the report stopped short of recommending any criminal charges against the disgraced executives, a source familiar with the panel investigation told Reuters that the panel had been instructed to present only the facts and leave Olympus to pursue any legal recourse.

“It is sad that a very limited number of top executives knew about it (the cover-up) and that the board of directors and auditors did not work well," said Tatsuo Kainaka, the chairman of the panel, to The Japan Times.

Olympus initially denied any wrongdoing but later acknowledged it had used inflated advisory fees and other acquisitions to hide bookkeeping losses from their previous investments.

According to Reuters, the current President of Olympus, Shuichi Takayama, has been preparing to take legal steps against those responsible for the cover-up. Former Olympus CEO, Michael Woodford, who was fired from the company after blowing the whistle in October, is also said to be launching a campaign to oust the current board and replace it with his own team of candidates led by him as the nominated CEO.

Thus far, Olympus has used some of $1.3 billion in acquisition payments and advisory fees to aid in the cover-up of the losses on its securities investments. The investigative panel also took pains to deny previous media reports alleging funds had flowed from the company to any “anti-social forces” – a euphemism for the Japanese Yakuza.

Related: Japan Forbes companies

The Yakuza has had a long history of trying to extort money from companies, sometimes threatening to release information that firms would like to keep secret.    


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