Summary
17 February 2012
The former Chairman of Olympus cameras and two other former executives have been arrested. The company has admitted it hid more than $1.5 billion in investment losses. The scandal was revealed by Olympus's British CEO Michael Woodford who says he was fired for questioning past transactions.
Reporter
Roland Buerk
The former chairman of Olympus has been arrested
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Report
The arrests are the latest step in investigations by the Japanese authorities into one of the country's biggest corporate scandals.
The former chairman of Olympus Tsuyoshi Kikukawa is being held under suspicion of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange law.
The company's former executive vice president and its former auditor have also been arrested.
An independent panel set up by Olympus blamed the men for orchestrating the cover-up of more than $1.5 billion in investment losses.
The company has lost nearly half its value since the scandal became public last October.
Olympus is suing 19 current and former executives.
And there's speculation it may need to merge or form new alliances with its rivals to rebuild its battered balance sheets.
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Vocabulary
- corporate scandals
events which cause public disgust. Here connected to companies.
- under suspicion
people think he is responsible
- violating
breaking
- auditor
person whose job is to examine business accounts
- orchestrating
arranging
- cover-up
attempt to stop people discovering a crime
- suing
making a legal claim for money from someone who has harmed you
- speculation
guessing
- alliances
agreements to work with other organisations or people
- battered
hit repeatedly
