Japan's securities watchdog files complaint against Olympus

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan's securities watchdog became on Tuesday, March 6, the latest authority to file a criminal complaint against Olympus Corp, some former executives and outside advisers over the company's $1.7 billion accounting fraud, Reuters reports.

The Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission (SESC) said it requested criminal charges be filed by public prosecutors against individuals involved in dubious mergers and acquisitions used to hide losses in one of Japan's biggest corporate scandals.

The complaint against Olympus is for filing false financial statements for the financial years ending March 2007 and March 2008. Last December, the company filed five years worth of corrected earnings statements to account for the scandal.

Former prosecutor, now lawyer, Shin Ushijima said the fact that the SESC had filed the complaint probably meant that prosecutors had already agreed to prosecute.

"Most likely the company will accept the charge, because the company's main purpose is to recover as quick as possible, so they want to avoid any unnecessary conflict," he said.

Tokyo prosecutors and the metropolitan police arrested these executives and bankers last month following their own investigations for hiding huge investment losses through complex takeover deals.

Under the criminal charges, Olympus executives could face up to 10 years in prison, or a fine of up to 10 million yen, lawyers have said. The company could face a fine of up to 700 million yen, Kyodo has reported.

Olympus itself is suing for mismanagement five of its eight internal directors, including the current president, Shuichi Takayama.