Olympus Deal $1.7B Worth Of Dodgy Business

An investigative panel has found Japan’s disgraced Olympus company hid up to US$1.67 billion in losses from its investors, but stops short of recommending criminal charges against executives.

The Nikkei newspaper said the panel was likely to state it had found no proof that the funds flowed to organised crime syndicates, as part of its report into the scandal engulfing the once-proud maker of cameras and medical equipment.

The panel’s report is due to be released as soon as today, almost two months after Olympus’s sacked chief executive, Englishman Michael Woodford, went public with his concerns over the firm’s accounting for a string of murky acquisitions.

Olympus has since lost more than half its market value and risks being delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange.