Corruption and greed bites camera maker Olympus in the corporate ass.

[JohnnyRingo]

If corporations are people, they are certainly the scum of the Earth.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/us-olympus-idUSTRE7A702X20111108

Olympus has been hiding it's losses for decades by purchasing small companies that served as a sort of scapegoat. While Olympus suffered terrible losses, they handed those debits down to camouflaged companies that would go unnoticed by stock rating firms and the government. This kept the stock artificially high and misled investors. Again, not just for months or years, but decades

Heads have already begun to roll within the company while officials explore criminal charges for accounting fraud.

According to the article:

"The disclosure leaves Olympus, its directors and its accountants open to possible criminal charges for suspected accounting fraud and shareholder suits, lawyers and analysts said, raising questions about the future of the firm, founded in 1919 as a microscope maker."

"This is very serious. Olympus admitted it has made false entries to cover its losses for 20 years. All people involved in this over 20 years would be responsible," said Ryosuke Okazaki, chief investment officer at ITC Investment Partners. "There is a serious danger that Olympus shares will be delisted. The future of the company is extremely dark."

I own a couple Olympus cameras that I love, and as sad as I am to hear of this dire news, at least I'm not an investor. Penalties could be meted as prison time as long as 10 years or fines up to 10 million yen ($1=78.0 yen)

That's not good enough for the billions in damaged they caused. Understand, this isn't a cause of carelessness or bad luck, this was the result of boundless greed and arrogance.

[NNN0LHI]

1. Sounds like ENRON

[Uben]

2. They should have to compensate everyone who lost money on them

They are a corporation.  That means Olympus is a person.  That
means someone has to go to prison for a very long time.  So, I
think every employee that was privvy to the illegal practices
must pay pennance by spending time in prison and forfeiting
every dime they made on the company.  All bonuses or awards
need to be rescinded and put into a fund for those who lost
money on the stock.  Nothing less would be true justice.

[JohnnyRingo]

4. Amen. The Full Madoff would be appropo

Multiple life sentences and complete liquidation of personal fortunes are in order.

That's what would happen to this person if I did that.

[badtoworse]

3. Aside from the criminality and harm to investors, this is a shame.

They made some great cameras. I used an XA for years and couldn't believe that such a small camera could take such sharp photographs.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. I agree, I felt personal remorse

I'm on my second, and I could buy another soon. I gave my son one I found on ebay and another one to my gf last Christmas. I kept my old one.

I doubt that's a good idea now. As it stands, my camera uses a proprietary memory card that will likely become extinct. (xd)

[SomethingFishy]

6. It's because they were too heavily regulated...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: