Chapter 1227: Revelations

Woodford's press conference attracted widespread attention at home and abroad.

Olympus is an industry giant, established 92 years ago, and can almost be called a century-old company. It has always had an excellent image. This time, the sudden revelation of financial fraud is undoubtedly shocking.

Only the second day after the press conference, Olympus's stock price plummeted by 9%. Combined with the previous drop due to the sudden dismissal of the CEO, it has fallen by 13% in total, and the market value has evaporated by 1.2 billion US dollars.

On the afternoon of the second day after the press conference, Olympus' Tokyo headquarters responded, accusing Woodford of tarnishing the company's image because of his dismissal.

Olympus's spokesperson completely denied the former CEO's accusations, saying that all mergers and acquisitions were audited reasonably and completed according to reasonable processes, and there was no problem.

As for the reason for the dismissal of the CEO, it was once again stated that Woodford's management style conflicted with other senior management.

Such a response from Olympus cannot convince the public, at least it cannot be recognized by overseas media, because the evidence and audit report presented by Woodford are quite credible, and the third-party auditor he hired, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is also one of the world's well-known accounting firms.

Two days later, Woodford held a second press conference in New York. Compared with the day before yesterday, the fermented storm brought more than 100 media outlets, and there were also TV stations broadcasting live.

The matter has expanded, and there must be a result.

This time, Woodford showed more evidence and named senior management involved in financial fraud, including Chairman Kikukawa Tsuyoshi, and believed that they should be arrested and punished by law.

Also attending the press conference were representatives of the company's foreign shareholders, who expressed two demands, one was to clean up senior management including Kikukawa Tsuyoshi, and the other was to let Woodford resume his original position.

In response to such demands, many media gave analysis and believed that the former might be achievable, because once financial fraud is confirmed, it will inevitably be prosecuted, but it is almost impossible to return to the position of CEO.

The Wall Street Journal reported the cause and effect of the incident in detail, and invited experts to analyze the future of Olympus.

"If Olympus really has such a long history of fraud as Woodford said, then the nature of this is extremely bad, and it is likely to be forced to delist by the Tokyo Stock Exchange."

"Of course, there is also the possibility that Japan will only impose a huge fine. After all, this is a Japanese company, and it may be given a break on the most critical issues."

"Woodford should continue to stay in New York and not return to Tokyo to see the attitude of the Japanese side first."

The New York Times focused on the response of Japan, including Olympus, prosecutors, police, securities regulators and the public.

"According to some Japanese media reports, some Olympus executives have leaked that they may take legal action against Woodford for violating corporate discipline."

"We have noticed that the Japanese securities regulatory authorities have been slow to act, and they are probably waiting for the incident to cool down."

"The attitude of some Japanese public is more clear, believing that Woodford's actions are hurting Japanese companies and damaging Woodford's stock price, and have already caused losses to them."

"We counted the Japanese media reports in the past week, and there are almost no headlines about the 'Olympus fraud incident', which makes people worry about the final direction of the incident."

The hot discussion in overseas media did not cause the same heat in Japanese media. Instead, there were many opposing voices in the local area. What is even more bizarre is...

As Olympus's stock price fell further, several Japanese companies stood up and expressed their support.

Fujifilm's directors revealed to the media that they may cooperate with Olympus in the near future with the intention of expanding the company's medical and health services.

Terumo is Olympus's largest supplier, and its CEO also stated that it will further strengthen cooperation with Olympus.

Also, Sony Group, Japan's largest consumer electronics exporter, has a vice president who expressed his consideration of investing in Olympus.

Affected by this, Olympus's stock price rebounded.

When Fang Zhuo saw that Sony was still thinking about it, he couldn't help but call Stringer to ask about the situation.

"It was decided by the local side." Stringer knew his company's statement almost at the same time as Fang Zhuo, and was quite depressed after hearing the inquiry, "It was probably instructed by the Japanese department."

The situation is already very clear.

Neither side is willing to admit defeat easily, especially Olympus's chairman Kikukawa Tsuyoshi doesn't want to go in.

Fang Zhuo ended his investigation of Sony and reposted an analysis of the incident by the American media on Twitter, and simply attached his own evaluation: 20 years of fraud? Hundreds of billions of yen in losses? Olympus's situation is surprising.

However, his remarks were just for fun, just adding a little heat. What really changed the incident was the statement of some overseas investors of Olympus, who would initiate a class action lawsuit against company executives including Kikukawa Tsuyoshi.

At the same time, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies also came out to express their opinions and would conduct relevant investigations and hearings on this matter.

The extent of this was taken seriously, and Japanese media finally turned their opinions from exports to domestic sales, and Olympus-related incidents were analyzed and reported on the headlines.

On September 28, the Tokyo prosecutors and the Tokyo Stock Exchange sent a letter to Olympus, asking it to explain the financial fraud and asking Woodford to return to Tokyo for questioning.

Affected by this official news, Olympus's stock price plummeted 12.8%, hitting a low of 1,467 yen.

It seems that with the launch of class action lawsuits and Japanese investigations, Olympus's situation will gradually become clear. Chairman Kikukawa Tsuyoshi's side has never had better proof, while Woodford continues to present evidence.

In the last two days of September, Olympus's stock price continued to fall, and further news showed that Kikukawa Tsuyoshi and others were about to resign and accept investigations by Tokyo prosecutors and police.

At this time, Fang Zhuo received a call from Stringer and talked about Olympus's situation.

"Sony will almost invest in Olympus to prevent it from being dragged down by its financial situation." Stringer talked about the news conveyed locally, which was the meaning of the relevant departments.

Olympus's situation will inevitably continue to deteriorate. Japan does not want it to fall, and it does not want to force it to delist.

"What are you Sony like..." Fang Zhuo was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

Stringer felt the same way: "Who says it's not? If it were me who made the decision, Sony shouldn't have intervened in Olympus's bad situation."

However, on the one hand, there was pressure from Japan, and on the other hand, he had lost his authority in the group.

Fang Zhuo ended the call with the old knight and called Kong Yu. Stringer was still the head of Sony, so why couldn't he make the decision?

He wanted Sony to be the last gift package, but now that Panasonic, which suffered more serious losses, had Sony intervene in Olympus, then...

On October 1, the famous whistleblower website WikiLeaks updated a new revelation, claiming to have obtained a batch of confidential American documents involving a number of well-known Japanese companies' fraudulent behavior.

"Not only did Olympus commit financial fraud to cover up the fact that it lost $1.7 billion, but what is even more shocking is that the Sony Group, which has a wider influence in the world, used various means to cover up a huge loss of at least $5 billion last year."

"This year, Sony has closed 10 factories, and its loss figure will reach at least $7 billion."

The revelation listed the unclear parts of Sony's financial report last year, and also detailed the financial means in the middle.

Sony also committed fraud?

5 billion loss? 7 billion loss?

A figure far higher than Olympus's loss?

True or false?

The financial fraud of Japanese company Olympus has not subsided. Although WikiLeaks has always mixed truth with falsehood, Sony's news cannot be immediately confirmed as true, but it still quickly attracted the attention of the media.