The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Dec. 21 raided the head office of Olympus Corp., the home of its former president and chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and the offices of three firms that Olympus purchased, in connection with the major camera and endoscope firm's massive accounting scandal. The Metropolitan Police Department and the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission joined the searches.
It is hoped that the investigation this time will clarify points that a third-party committee appointed by Olympus could not fully discover. These points would include what outside people helped Olympus hide its latent losses from investments in the 1990s, whether the firm paid illegal dividends, whether it had connections with underworld organizations and whether Olympus executives illegally pocketed money.
The committee has already discovered the outline of the scandal. The firm was found to have used an elaborate scheme to hide ¥117.1 billion in investment losses by turning back ¥134.8 billion out of funds set aside to acquire a series of other firms.