Last Updated on 03/27/2013 by Chris Gampat
According to a report today, the heads of Olympus are going to be singing Jail House Rock soon. Olympus’s former head, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, is facing five years in prison due to manipulating account balances and we should expect a final hearing within a couple of weeks. He has already pleaded guilty to the crimes.
Kikukawa won’t be alone in prison though–other managers also pleaded guilty but they won’t be getting as harsh a sentence.
To recap, former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford did some internal whistle blowing when he found out that the company covered up losses of $1.7 billion and took it to higher powers outside of the company’s control. And like that, it spiraled into a whirlwind. However, there were already hints of it as even Leica was reporting gains while Olympus wasn’t. Quite obviously, Woodford and Olympus butted heads for a while as well. But in a gentlemen’s play, Sony came partially to the rescue of Olympus with a 10% investment.
Via NZZ.ch
Translation provided by Felix Esser
