Further blow for Olympus

JAPAN’S securities watchdog yesterday became the latest regulator to file a criminal complaint against Olympus over the camera and medical equipment maker’s $1.7 billion (£1.1bn) accounting fraud.

The Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission (SESC) has requested criminal charges be filed by public prosecutors against former Olympus executives and advisers involved in 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. In December, the company filed five years’ worth of corrected profits statements to account for the scandal. Under the criminal charges, staff could face up to ten years in prison.

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