Tsuyoshi kikukawa biography of christopher paul

A number of individuals whose backgrounds are important to the understanding of the Olympus scandal, which was precipitated on 14 October when the company's British-born chief executive, Michael Woodford was suddenly ousted as chief executive of Olympus Corporation.

He had been only two weeks into the job when he exposed "one of the biggest and longest-running loss-hiding arrangements in Japanese corporate history", according to the Wall Street Journal.^[1] The US$&#;billion deal in to acquire British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group, and the US$&#;million paid to a middle-man were questioned.

After initial denials, the company admitted that prior acquisitions had been used to cover investment losses. As regulators and police on three continents begin to investigate and trace the movement of the money, there was speculation that organised crime was involved in the missing millions. Olympus defended itself against allegations of impropriety, citing its Audit Board's view that "no dishonesty or illegality is found in the transaction itself, nor any breach of the obligation to good management or any systematic errors by the directors recognised."

The whistleblower

Michael C.

Woodford

Main article: Michael Woodford (executive)

According to the Olympus website, Woodford, a graduate of Millbank College of Commerce, joined KeyMed, a U.K. medical-equipment unit of Olympus, in He became managing director by the age of In he became executive managing director of Olympus Europa Holding GmbH and a member of the Olympus board of directors.^[2] In February , he was appointed president of Olympus Corporation.

On 30 September Woodford was appointed chief executive officer, the appointment taking effect on 1 October.^[3] However, after he started agitating within the top Olympus executives about suspicious acquisitions, he was fired from his position as president and CEO on 14 October ; he remained a board director.^[4]

Tsuyoshi Kikukawa

Kikukawa, Tsuyoshi "Tom" (菊川剛), born on 27 February , was educated at Keio University, where he graduated in Political Science, Dept.

of Law in March ^[5] His management style is regarded as a 'Western', and is credited with having considerably changed the corporate culture of Olympus.

Kikukawa joined Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (as Olympus Corporation was then known) in October In June , he became managing director responsible for Public Relations & Advertising Dept.

and DI Project and was made director and member of the main board.^[5] Kikukawa spent considerable time in the United States, where he foresaw the demand for the digital SLR. He is credited with the company's strategy in digital photography &#; he fought for commitment by Olympus to enter the market in high-resolution photographic products.

As a result of his efforts, Olympus released an ,pixel digital camera for the mass market in , when the resolution of rivals' offerings was less than half. The very next year, Olympus hit the market with a million pixel camera. By , the company's annual turnover from digital photography was in excess of ¥ billion.^[6] In recognition of the success in digital photography that he championed within the firm, Kikukawa was promoted to managing director in and president in April ^[5][6]

In February , Kikukawa handed the title of president to Michael Woodford, while remaining as board chairman and CEO.

Kikukawa remained chairman when Woodford was promoted to CEO on 30 September Kikukawa re-assumed the titles of president and CEO two weeks later when Woodford was ousted. Kikukawa resigned as chairman, president, and CEO on 26 October ^[7] Ahead of the much-awaited board meeting on 25 November, Kikukawa announced his resignation from the board.^[8] In , he was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for 5 years.

The lenient sentence was because Kikukawa was not shown to have initiated or personally benefited from the scheme.^[9]

Shuichi Takayama

Takayama, Shuichi Ph.D. (高山修一) became the chief executive officer and president of Olympus Corporation on the resignation of Tsuyoshi Kikukawa as a result of the Olympus scandal and occupied executive or directorate-level positions in other Olympus subsidiaries.

He joined the Company in April and previously served as director of human resources, managing executive officer, senior managing executive officer and manager of Life & Industrial System Company ^[10] He resigned all his positions and left the company at an extraordinary general meeting in April ^[11]

Hisashi Mori

Mori, Hisashi (森 久志)^[12] was executive vice president of Olympus Corporation until his resignation in November Mori joined Olympus in April He became general manager of, Finance Division in July , and headed General Corporate Planning Office in April ; he was made general manager of Corporate Planning Headquarters at Olympus Corporation in April

Mori served as a main board director of Olympus Corporation from June ^[13] until his resignation in November due to the scandal.^[8] Mr.

Mori served as a part-time director of ITX Corporation from June to June , and was its full-time director since June ^[13] In , he was sentenced to years in prison, suspended for 4 years.

Hideo Yamada

Yamada, Hideo (山田秀雄)^[12] was Executive Managing Officer and Executive Officer of Olympus.

He was a Standing Corporate Auditor of Olympus Corporation until November ^[14] Yamada, who enjoyed observer status on the board, resigned.^[8] In , he was sentenced to 3 years in prison, suspended for 5 years.

Third parties

Hajime Sagawa

Sagawa, Hajime "Jim" (佐川 肇) is a graduate of Keio University.^[15]

In , he met his future wife in Tokyo, where she was teaching English and met him when she went to a concert where his band was playing; at the time he worked at Nomura Research Institute.

They married a year later, and moved to New York soon afterwards. Sagawa worked for four years at Nomura Securities International in the early s;^[15] he was employed at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and later became head of mergers and acquisitions at Sanyo Securities America in the s.^[16] Sagawa spent six years at Paine Webber from until he was laid off in , when he cofounded his own brokerage firm, Axes America, in according to securities filings.^[15] SEC filings from through show his firm's revenue never exceeded $,, all paid by offshore entities owned by the members of Axes.

In Axes signed its first contract with Olympus, and received fees of $ million; fees in amounted to $ million and $ million in , most of which was from Olympus. Finra records show that Sagawa became sole owner of the firm in ^[15]

Sagawa and his wife divorced "by mutual agreement" in early November Through the divorce settlement, Sagawa received $ million in assets, while his wife received $ million, including the $ million marital home in Boca Raton^[15] which was transferred to his wife for $ After the scandal broke, he vacated a luxury mansion in the Cayman Islands, and his current address is unknown.^[17][18] He was neither indicted nor arrested.

Tsuyoshi kikukawa biography of christopher brown Suggestions were being made implicating links to organised crime within the firm, however these appear to be largely unfounded. A damning report has been published by an independent panel appointed to investigate the scam. Three former Olympus officials, including disgraced ex-chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, all received suspended prison sentences today for their role in an accounting fraud that threw the company into turmoil. Bloomberg reports that Kikukawa and auditing officer Hideo Yamada got three-year sentences suspended for five years, and executive vice president Hisashi Mori got two and a half years suspended for three. The relatively light sentences take into account that much of the fraud was set into motion before the executives were involved.

Akio Nakagawa

Nakagawa, Akio (中川 昭夫) was head of equities at Paine Webber in Japan in the early s. According to former colleagues, he worked in tandem with Hajime Sagawa, and performed "portfolio reshuffling" for his Japanese corporate clients, and had long-standing relationship with Olympus.^[19] A former Paine Webber banker attested that Nakagawa and Sagawa were handlers for Olympus, and they made use of Bermuda-based funds valued at "hundreds of millions of dollars" to manage its balance sheet using Japanese accounting loopholes.^[20] Nakagawa and Sagawa were also colleagues at Drexel Burnham Lambert and PaineWebber.^[19] After Nakagawa left Wall Street firms in , he once again joined with Hajime Sagawa, in Axes America.^[19] After the Olympus scandal broke, Nakagawa was traced by Reuters reporters to a "luxury apartment block in Hong Kong".^[21] He was neither indicted nor arrested.

Akinobu and Nobumasa Yokoo

Yokoo, Nobumasa (横尾 宣政) is a former investment banker with Nomura. He and some other Nomura executives were caught up in a racketeering scandal involving a corporate racketeer named Koiki Ryuichi, and was forced to resign in June after it the affair became public; some Nomura executives were arrested.^[16] Having founded Global Company in the late s, Yokoo persuaded Olympus to invest ¥30&#;billion in their venture capital fund in He also introduced three small, unprofitable companies in which he was shareholder and executive.

News Chef, a maker of microwave cookware, Altis and Humalabo were acquired by Olympus for ¥&#;billion from Cayman Island-based funds between and ^[22] According to its listing in Japan's corporate registry dated 28 July , Nobumasa is president of Global Chef.^[23] He was neither indicted nor arrested.

In , Yokoo Akinobu (横尾 昭信), Nobumasa's older brother, was chief financial officer of ITX, an information technology group Olympus acquired in ^[24] Akinobu became a group executive officer after Olympus became majority owners.^[25] Akinobu was an Olympus executive officer between and He was never on the board.

^[23] Akinobu is also president of Jalux, a company that provides parts and services to the aviation industry.^[24] He was neither indicted nor arrested.

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