Japan Display Inc. said Tuesday it will set up a new investigative team consisting only of outside parties to look into suspected improper accounting after the company’s internal probe found questionable figures in previous earnings results.
The struggling panel-maker said the internal team, formed earlier this month and including a Japan Display executive and outside parties, found an overvaluation totaling some ¥10 billion ($91 million) for its inventory, which was later removed in past business years.
The new probe team will examine accounting results since the company’s founding in April 2012 to September this year, Japan Display said.
The suspected improper accounting came to light through a notification from a former executive who was found dead late last month in an apparent suicide after being found to have embezzled some ¥578 million over four years from 2014, according to the display-maker.
Japan Display, a supplier to Apple Inc., said earlier this month it has agreed to receive a capital injection of up to ¥90 billion from private fund Ichigo Asset Management Ltd. in a new bailout after a rescue plan by a Chinese-Taiwanese consortium effectively stalled in September, with a Chinese investor withdrawing from it.
The display-maker was established through the merger of the operations of Sony Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. with support from the state-backed fund INCJ Ltd.
