Olympus comes clean on dodgy payments

The British former chief executive and whistle-blower at cameras giant Olympus appeared vindicated today as the company finally came clean on the bizarre enormous fees paid during the takeover of London-listed opticals group Gyrus.

Olympus admitted it had found that payments related to the $2 billion takeover in 2008, which included $687 million of "advisory fees", were actually used to hide losses on securities investments dating back to the 1980s. A payment of $773 million for three Japanese firms was also used for the same purpose.

The dodgy fees were first revealed by then chief executive Michael Woodford, who has staged a campaign to force the firm to come clean since being sacked on October 14. Olympus president Shuichi Takayama today blamed Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who quit as president and chairman on October 26, vice-president Hisashi Mori and internal auditor Hideo Yamada for the cover-up, saying he would consider criminal complaints against them. Mori was sacked earlier today after Yamada quit.

"I was absolutely unaware of the facts I am now explaining to you," a subdued Takayama told a news conference. He had staunchly defended the deals when he took over from Kikukawa last month.

"The previous presentations were mistaken," he added.

The Olympus affair is the biggest corporate scandal to hit Japan since a series of controversies at brokerages in the 1990s.