Olympus Fiasco

I relaize this isnt really politics, but it’s pretty interesting.

If you havent heard, Olympus, the Japanese camera maker, bought a company and paid advisory fees of $687M, or 1/3 of the total purchase price to some small advisory frims run by the same guy.

This is in addition to 3 purchases in 2008 that included $600M in goodwill and a subsequent write-down of the same $600M.

The English President, an Olympus lifer, was pushed out and is currently fighting through the FBI and other organizations on suspiscion of corruption, possible organized cvrime involvement etc. etc.

Very interesting stuff…

This is the most comprehensive article i have seen on it.

REUTERS LINK

I always wondered why they werent called Orympus…

3/4 of their valuation is gone, dropped another 20% yesterday.

Olympus has admitted to the coverup.

record advisory fees linked to hiding losses in the core business.

looks like a Japanese ENRON