Three former Olympus executives pleaded
guilty on Tuesday to filing false financial reports in connection with a $1.7bn
accounting fraud at the Japanese camera company.
In
the first court proceedings arising from the case, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who ran
Olympus for a decade as president and later chairman, said he was to blame for
the long-running scheme to hide lossmaking investments.
"As
the representative director and president, I bear full responsibility," he
said.
Two
of Mr Kikukawa's top lieutenants, Hisashi Mori and Hideo Yamada, also pleaded
guilty.
Olympus has admitted
that managers secretly moved more than Y100bn ($1.3bn) of securities-related
investment losses off its books beginning in the 1990s, then used acquisitions
as cover to square the hidden accounts.
Including
money that outside financiers kept in return for helping arrange the deception,
roughly Y135bn was "appropriated to maintain the scheme", a civil
investigation commissioned by the company concluded in December.
Four
financial advisers have also been charged with violating securities laws in the
affair, and are to be tried separately from the Olympus executives.
In
theory, the seven men could face to up to 10 years in prison, although it is
common in Japan for white-collar criminals to avoid jail with suspended
sentences or fines.
By Jonathan Soble, FT.com September 25,
2012
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