Michael Woodford Discusses His Dismissal From Olympus

The former CEO of giant optical recounted how he had been abruptly dismissed in October after raising a huge business accounting makeup.

The Japanese business community expected a comeback of Michael Woodford , the former CEO of the giant optical Olympus . He was not disappointed. Friday, days after his arrival on Japanese soil, the British told in detail how he had been abruptly dismissed in October after being raised before the board a huge business accounting makeup.

Hollow, he drew up in front of hundreds of journalists hanging on his lips, a damning picture of the company and the Japanese business from everyone messes up at all: its board of directors, subject to the Almighty President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa ("they voted for my dismissal as children raise their hands"), the auditors of Ernst & Young , Olympus expected to follow, and have validated stride accounts and financial transactions absurd at first glance ; financial authorities ("who can seriously claim that if I went to see rather than the media, something has changed?") and up to the Japanese press ("it took several weeks for it follow the Financial Times ").

Mysterious intermediate
The return of Michael Woodford in Japan coincided with the entry of the case in its judicial aspect Olympus. The all-powerful prosecutor's office in Tokyo and Japanese financial authorities have vowed to Michael Woodford, who met Thursday, they would shed light on the matter Olympus.

Nearly 1, 5 billion dollars have been sunk in mergers and acquisitions arranged by mysterious middlemen domiciled in the Cayman Islands. Olympus bought overvalued companies by paying commissions windfall, which were apparently used to hide losses incurred on other investments.

"I think the police are the only institution capable of investigating this matter to the end," said Michael Woodford. Police search for possible payments to yakuza, the Japanese mafia. For his part, Michael Woodford went on Friday at a meeting of the board of Olympus, with whom he felt to have had a dialogue "constructive".