Asia Bizz: Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the former president of Olympus has been arrested in Tokyo on February 16, 2012. This is the latest development in one of the biggest ever financial scandals in Japan.
Kikukawa has been named as the key accused in a scheme shift $1.7 billion of losses from the balance sheet of the company. The former president has been arrested on suspicion of violating laws banning falsification of financial statements.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in a statement informed that it had also arrested former vice president Hisashi Mori, former brokerage house executive Akio Nakagawa and former auditor Hideo Yamada. The statement added that the Metropolitan Police Department arrested three other former officials of another brokerage house.
All those who are arrested had conspired to falsify Olympus’s balance sheet, which consolidated net assets that stood at 344.871 billion yen in the fiscal year 2006 instead of 233.737 billion yen. A false statement was also made by the suspects in the fiscal year 2007 with net assets of 367.876 billion yen instead of 254.246 billion yen. The prosecutors had earlier raided the headquarters of the camera maker in the month of December 2011. The raids will now continue in the locations related to the case, which includes Kikukaawa’s house.
