Battle brewing for control of scam-tainted Olympus
08 Dec 2011
A battle for scam-tainted Japanese camera-maker Olympus Corp is brewing, with former CEO Michael Woodford demanding that that a new board be appointed without the approval of the management.
Woodford, a Briton, who was sacked as CEO of the company he had served for more than three decades for raising questions about Olympus's accounting lapses, raised questions about irregular payments made by the company to little-known firms in acquisition deals.
The last few weeks have seen several top Japanese executives being sacked and an independent panel has just come out with a damning indictment of the top management, describing the senior executives as ''rotten to the core.'' (See: Olympus used offshore firms to cover up losses)
The company, which faces the threat of being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has set up a second independent panel to advise the management whether to file criminal complaints against a former chairman and an ex-auditor, accused of having masterminded the $1.5 billion scam to cover up losses.
Olympus also plans to set up other committees to examine the management structure and auditing practices, besides fixing responsibility for the same. On Wednesday, the company announced that Makoto Nakatsuka, a director, had resigned after it was reported that he had helped two of the executives indicted by the committee in managing its financial assets.
Another director is also expected to resign soon, even as calls grow for the entire board – described as 'yes men' by the independent panel – to quit.
