Looks like the scandal that’s sliced Olympus shares in half is finally bearing some results according to Bloomberg. Seven arrests have been made in response to the 13 year coverup of mispriced acquisitions resulting in a $1.3 billion dollar writedown of the company’s net assets.
From Bloomberg:
Olympus’s Tokyo headquarters and its affiliated offices were raided Dec. 21 by prosecutors after the company said in November that Kikukawa and two other executives colluded to hide losses from securities investments from the 1990s. The stock has plunged 48 percent since the Oct. 14 dismissal of its first non- Japanese president, Michael Woodford, who later publicly questioned inflated takeover costs.
Kikukawa, the 70-year old former executive who headed Olympus for 10 years till last year, Hideo Yamada, 67, who led Olympus’s investment unit since 80s and later became an auditing officer, and former executive vice president Hisashi Mori concealed losses and falsified financial statements, a violation of Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, the prosecutors said.
According to an Olympus spokesman, the company will fully cooperate with prosecutors on the matter.
via Olympus Ex-Chairman Kikukawa and Six Others Arrested Over Fraud – Businessweek.