Olympus loses 33bn-yen

Published:  14 Feb at 4 PM

As reported by the BBC, Japanese camera-maker Olympus has announced a loss in profits during the nine months before 31 December 2011, while it still disputes an accounting scandal. The company saw a 33.09 billion yen loss during the period, which compares to the 5.84 billion yen profit during the same period in 2010.

Olympus has confessed to concealing losses of $1.7 billion for as long as twenty years. The firm forecast this week that it would see a 32 billion yen loss during the full year until the 31 March 2012.

The firm will be interrogating its ex board members in April, now that ex CEO Michael Woodford got tough on accounting irregularities in October 2011. The scandal, which hit the press during October 2011, has caused the firm´s share price to drop by almost 50%.

Mr Woodford says he was dismissed as CEO for raising alarms about the company´s accounting practices. He stated he had questioned the firm´s payment of $687 million to financial advisers when it acquired the UK medical equipment firm Gyrus.

Although the firm initially denied any foul play, it later confessed that it had been concealing losses. Olympus has since sued nineteen executives for the embarrassing cover-up. The firm was allowed to maintain its name at the Tokyo Stock Exchange at the beginning of 2012, although the company was fined 10 million yen by the exchange.