Ex-Olympus president arrested
Tokyo Police have arrested seven men as part of its investigation into the £1.1bn Olympus accounting fraud scandal. Amongst them is the company’s former president, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa.
Former executive vice president of the medical equipment and camera maker, Hisashi Mori, and former auditor Hideo Yamada were among those arrested.
Also arrested were former bankers Akio Nakagawa and Nobumasa Yokoo and two others suspected of helping hide huge investment losses through intricate mergers and acquisitions.
The three former executives had been identified by an investigative panel, commissioned by Olympus last October, as the main culprits in the fraud.
Last year, the investigative panel found Kikukawa (pictured), Mori and Yamada had played leading roles in a 13-year scheme to hide losses the company made through risky investments made in the late-1980s, and they are among 19 executives Olympus is suing over the scandal.
The panel said it found no evidence of involvement by organised crime, despite widespread speculation that the yakuza were somehow involved in the cover-up scheme.
The investigation was first launched after ex-CEO Michael Woodford raised questions about missing funds after he was fired in October. He claimed he was sacked for questioning accounts.
Read more: Jon Snow interviews ex-Olympus CEO and whistleblower Michael Woodford
In December, Olympus filed five years of corrected results, declaring a loss of £267m ($414m) and revising down the value of its net assets.
The beleaguered company is now hoping that a meeting with shareholders in April will represent a turning point in the scandal, with at least six of its 11-member board, including current president Shuichi Takayama, set to resign.
His successor is likely to be one of three board members the panel said were not responsible for the cover-up – Masataka Suzuki, Kazuhiro Watanabe and Shinichi Nishigaki.