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Olympus fraud saga rumbles on with UK prosecution

Sep 4, 2013 at 11:49:37 GMT

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Olympus will be prosecuted by the UK Serious Fraud Office over charges that it provided 'misleading, false or deceptive' material in accounts submitted by its medical supplies subsidiary Gyrus Group Limited. Earlier this year three former senior executives of the company were handed suspended jail sentences for their part in a massive accounting scandal which hid huge investment losses dating back to the 1990s, and was uncovered by former CEO Michael Woodford.

A statement issued by Olympus states that the potential impact on the Group's business is unclear, as it's difficult to estimate the level of any fines which may be imposed if the prosecution is successful.

Click here for the full story (BBC News)

Click here for Olympus's statement regarding the SFO prosecution

Source: BBC

OTHER NEWS OLYMPUS-SCANDAL

Comments

Total comments: 37

Fraud is a crime, and the perpetrators need to be punished.

The Japanese legal system simply gave them a rap over the knuckles. Justice for US, UK and other nation's citizens needs to be seen to be done. Think of those whose pension funds were hit, or whose savings were affected, and the impact on long serving employees' pensions.

So peevee1 and others with a similar twisted sense of duty, please take note.

0 upvotes

YEH! All those Wall Street types rotting in jail after plunging the world into financial chaos with shady mortgage deals. Methinks Japan's record, as miserable as it is, is better than either the US or the UK.

0 upvotes

Ambulance chasing . And it looks like Pearl Harbor all over again on this site read bellow.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 7 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Awww, and after they went to so much trouble to sweep it under the rug in Japan. Did anyone receive any KIND of criminal charge there?

0 upvotes

Corruption and criminal acts know no countries border. Corrupt businessmen exist everywhere. Greed, greed is bad, greed makes people bad.

0 upvotes

The soaps continue. See next chapters in the near future.

0 upvotes

The prices they charge for their m4/3 gear they need investigating :-)

5 upvotes

British lawyers want their cut.

2 upvotes

I can see this case being never ending, literally.

1 upvote

Is there also a Not-Very-Serious Fraud Office?

11 upvotes

yeah, its called the Police.

Defraud somebody for a few quid and the police deal with it.

The SFO is just that - its for cases where the crime is serious and too complex for the police to investigate (ie the department is full of people that understand fraud and corruption law)

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 3 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Another big lawyer payday looms

3 upvotes

The gods that lived in Mount Olympus frequently behaved badly, too.

1 upvote

that's the problem.

as many as 1/4 of the population favor the gods or totalitarianism than fundamental human rights and they have a comfortable majority in the National Diet, control bureaucracy (including judiciary) and nearly 2000 major enterprises.

they backed up Olympus, helped the company to weather the disaster, and gave the company and criminals lightest punishment.

that's why we have to do the prosecution in UK.

Comment edited 3 times, last edit 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Those suspended jail sentences send a clear message that this type of crime will be somewhat tolerated.

17 upvotes

it depends on who you are.
your luck could be really bad if not one of them.
an example of politically motivated investigation in Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takafumi_Horie

0 upvotes

Japan is an advanced developed country with nasty medieval traditon.
it's not one company, it's the system that is rotten.

2 upvotes

but that system has consistently produced astonishingly innovative world-leading products which has shaped our shared experiences for several decades, so, at least on some levels, it works.

1 upvote

@kimchiflower I don't know. Some suggest that Japan's ability to innovate is stagnating.

2 upvotes

Where the photo business is concerned, the Japanese invented the 35mm camera, rangefinder camera like the Leica and Contax and the first SLR, the Exakta. Other countries might be content to copy and perhaps improve but when it comes to thinking outside the box, Japan is the place.

0 upvotes

@AbrasiveReducer

i might not have your sense of humor or do not get your ironic pun right. or do you really believe that the japanese invented all that stuff you mention here?

2 upvotes

Even if they did invent it, that was so long ago it is not really relevant.

0 upvotes

The Japanese invented the bokeh.

0 upvotes

The Japanese rarely have invented things. They have "polished" existing designs but most of what they have "created" was a better copy of something that already existed. Look at the minolta autocord, it's almost an exact copy of the German rolleicord, just a nicer focusing lever vs the German model's knob. Even the name was copied!

2 upvotes

but Japanese may be the best polishers in the world.
it's a good strategy to follow the anticipator,
shoot him in the back and take advantage.
but Japanese are shot in the back by Koreans now.

0 upvotes

The never ending saga. Go bankrupt and start a new company. We'll be all happy.

1 upvote

...and name it Canikon

0 upvotes

Probably more like "Panalympus" or "Olympsonic"

Or with Sony's recent ownership stake "Sonympus"

0 upvotes

I do get how this stuff is of interest, but...
I once got to borrow an OM2n. That was a fabulous camera.
I think I'll be concentrating on the memories those pics bring.

0 upvotes

If we hide our heads in the sand like that, things like this are allowed to happen all around us. Certainly we can't watch everyone but just ignoring it isn't an option either. Bad news, yep, I get it, nobody want's to hear bad news- but that's part of life take it or leave it.

2 upvotes

I'll leave it thanks. The only effect you will have is on yourself, and that's what I'm choosing too.

0 upvotes

Ignorance is merry bliss, indeed. It helps fraudsters succeed with impunity. Tsuyoshi Kikukawa will be so happy for the story to fade. To his chagrin, the bad Brit didn't play the hiding game, stay mum, and then get the blame. Might Japan's courts have been equally lenient? Ah, but what a sensational pic that would be for Tsuyoshi-san's album!

1 upvote

Considering the fact that Oly is preparing something new, I think such news carry some black PR scent.

1 upvote

You think the UK Serious Fraud Office is prosecuting Olympus for PR purposes?

12 upvotes

Not that, it's just the timing that seems very unfortunate. But I guess that's nothing unusual nowadays...

2 upvotes

> that seems very unfortunate

it should be nice to commit a crime and make a fortune.

0 upvotes

The fraud was to cover up losses made by previous people. Quite the opposite of making a fortune -- they were, in fact, pretending to be paying enormous sums for worthless stuff while diverting most of the money to secretly fill in the massive money-pit.

This is why the sentencing was so lenient.

Gyrus appears to be a UK based subsidiary that was involved in these transactions, and so the UK SFO has jurisdiction to investigate and potentially prosecute anyone involved in the UK. It seems odd that there has been such a long delay before kicking off the investigation.

1 upvote

Total comments: 37

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