I didn’t expect that to come: Olympus has been sued by six Japanese trust banks for damages relating to a $1.7 billion accounting scandal in 2011. Reuters reports that they are seeking 27.9 billion yen ($273 million) for damages. Olympus at its last earnings briefing said it would set aside 17 billion yen ($166.49 million) to settle three of the cases it has publicly recognized.
I am a bit surprised to see Japanese banks going against a Japanese company. In a time of financial crisis like that isn’t it insensible to damage a Japanese company? Anyway, I am too far away from these kind of financial world to know what’s really going on. Maybe it’s just me…but have more sympathy in a company based on real economy and real product creation than in banks 🙂
P.S.: Just read the book from Jérôme Kerviel about the giant fraud he committed in France. It probably influenced (again) my negative impression about the current bank system in general.
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The corporate execs at Oly (or any other corporation) are no different than the bankers. They are there to make money and answer to their investors. If they do not play it straight (and for decades!) there are consequences. I still cherish my pen F (the real one, half frame film cam/lenses). Though from a bygone era when Oly made their name, the camera and lenses still work fabulously.
One of the banks is Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp wich is a part of Mitsubishi group. An other member of Mitsubishi group is Nikon. 🙂
Please explain further. I can see that Nikon is an independent company with publicly traded share in the Nikkei exchange.
Are you saying Nikon is suing Olympus?
yup
Nikon and Olympus are having a pissing contest over who can make a more retro looking camera.
I said exactly what I said. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp and Nikon are both members of an Industrial Conglomerate called Mitsubishi group. It´s up to you to draw your conclutions. Try google Mitsubishi group.
Do you know how LARGE Mitsubishi is compared to Nikon? The only conclusion is a bank wants it’s money.
One of the other banks is Master Trust Bank of Japan. Guess who are the majority shareholder of this bank is. It’s Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp. See a pattern? An other bank close to Nikon corp!
This would be believable if Nikon and its shareholders were remotely afraid of Olympus. Surprise: they are not. As I said earlier, in Japan it works almost the opposite than in the Western world: you do not “kill” your “enemy”, especially if it is not going well. Nikon knows very well that the real problem now it’s the raise of Iphones and the like, and the overtaking of the lower end market. Considering that many of those succesfull products (smartphones etc) are made outside Japan, then they see those as the real enemy. It is as simple as that: Oly was sued because for years they did a lot of illegal practices which actually damaged the credibility of other Japanese institutions.
Boff… In Japan everybody is a relative to everybody else, in the financial world. Truth is: previous Olympus’ board has stolen money, damaged the company, damaged the banks’ credibility, and put shame on the entire country (this is how the affair is seen in Japan). Somehow they were not judged guilty, but someone (= Oly) has to pay for the losses. This is probably the first time I get why banks do something like this. So said, let’s hope this will not impact the camera business
Read about the history of Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp. Doesn´t look like they are som innocent little lambs either.
Never said that. But if you read about the history of Olympus, you will discover that they are not exactly a clean company. Never have been, but recently they were obviously involved in too many scandals and mafia affairs
Like most stupid people, you talk too much… Renzie.
When you say stupid, please look at the mirror first 😉
Okay, so you were trying to make implications, but quickly backed off when called on it.
So we can agree that Nikon is not suing Olympus.
And the other five banks likely have ties to the other competitors and Olympus themselves. Those zaibatsu own every big company in their country.
Banks have only one love and it begins with “M”
Muffins!
If already acknowledged corporate shenanigans by a company caused a loss, why exactly should they not be sued to compensate for the loss?
If you relied on a local auto repair company to fix your car but instead they made it worse, would you refrain from seeking redress because said repair shop was in the same country as you?
I am not that surpsised. Banks are like this. You recommend an excellent book, though I live in Greece so i have first hand experience about how banks work…
fuck the banks
SO, Olympus does all the grimy corporate financial lies, gets caught, gets fined, gets sued, BUT for some reason, it’s the Banks fault?
Yup, no bias here… Nope.
Olympus is lucky that they’re still a company. Y’all better go out and buy Olympus product before they go belly up.
They can’t even make a profit even though they have a couple cameras selling. But, it’s solely all their fault.
Something is telling me someone is going to aquire Olympus. Could be Panasonic, could be Canon or even Apple. I would say Sony, but they’re broke and their credit rating is junk.
This is what happens when your dishonest in business.
And you can add that Kikukawa admitted he knew about it all. Hiding their annual loses in acquisition fees. Despicable behaviour.
Sounds no different than the World Bank, the IMF, the LIBOR scandal, MF Global stealing bank deposits, governments around the world covering banks and corporations for the derivatives scam…..it’s how big business operates worldwide, only Olympus got caught…go figure.
Lol… the whole business of banking relays on dishonesty.
What Olympus, or more precisely, some Oly managers have done was not right, of course.
On the other hand that is just everyday business of banks…
The banksters are only better in hiding it and covering their traces. Or even write the laws so that they can legally do what they want.
No problem, Olympus will raise its prices
$500 lens hoods! Huzzah!
“I am a bit surprised to see Japanese banks going against a Japanese company. In a time of financial crisis like that isn’t it insensible to damage a Japanese company?”
You are implying that bankers have feelings. Quite amusing.
Best comment! 🙂
Even though its banks, let’s not forget the little old lady who went to the bank and bought shares in Olympus for her grandkids. Those shares were propped up by criminal accounting and the little old lady was wiped out.
Buying shares as a low-risk investment is basically never a good idea. If she couldn’t afford to lose that money, she should have got GICs, or bonds, or something else. This is basic financial hygiene…
(By no way am I endorsing Olympus’ corruption here. I’m just saying.)
This is great news! It is about time this morally corrupt company – festering OilyM-puss – is put out its misery. After abandoning a real format and going for insipid, tiny-sensored junk, they then committed corporate fraud on an unprecedented scale. Companies like this deserve to be wiped out of existence. Good riddance!
Well said Clive D,
Do you think the same should be applied to all the banks who quite literally fucked up the worlds financial situation.
As a UK citizen myself I feel for those people who invested in Banks such as Northern Rock and RBS, but then they were bailed out by the UK Government but no one asked me if I was prepared to accept that responsibility, they traded irresponsibly and should have been allowed to die a very ignominious death, not bailed out to carry on trading the same way and to give themselves obscene bonuses.
In that case close up Wall St. and the stock exchanges Clive. They are the worlds biggest crooks and thieves.
reading our comments, its obvious we are not pjhotograpers….lol
By all means, let those banks die. And Olympus too, and funny M43 too.
Idiots are everywhere, you just proved that.
And you? US education?
pot, meet kettle.
I respect companies and people that follow laws and regulations…………
The Dutch government did the same fu#ked up thing. I guess I’m now a part owner of a bank 🙂
Socializing losses capitalizing profits. That’s what you get when companies are aloud to get to big to fail.
Sony will like this so the can buy the rest of Olympus. So then no more Olympus as this will put them under. Sony will wait till bankrupt and scoop it up for peanuts
Olympus gone most likely Sony would stop M43. Olympus and Panasonic are focusing on improving a smaller sensor while Sony focuses on putting larger sensors in small bodies
I like small So would like to see smaller and lighter lenses
Not happy about this news. Terrible news. As one less manufacturer will not help prices to come down
It is amazing how many products have come out since 2000. Prior we would see
Unfortunately Sony is too broke to afford to purchase Olympus or any of their medical, industrial, or commercial optics companies.
🙂 true Sony maybe not doing so great but if price is right they may as they already own a chunk in Olympus. Just do not think Canon is interested and Panasonic is not doing well enough to buy Olympus. I do own a OMD em5 and the Stylus 1 so I might have to rush to buy the OMD em1. Olympus just has it right in having IBIS and their 5 axis IS awesome Panasonic has put their 3axis IS in the GX7 whis is nice – I have 2 GX7s and love them – Olympus just has many nice features just hate to see them go under or at least the camera division but I am sure these banks do not care I would assume that Sony could just buy the camera division while the banks get the rest
I agree, but in my opinion there is still no way Sony can afford to purchase a swath of patents and rights from Olympus. I doubt they have that kind of cash lying around when they are broke and selling off divisions left and right.
You maybe right – although Sony produces world class sensors there is other things they lack in when it comes to camera design 🙂
I say this as I own 4 Sony cameras 🙂 but I also own 2 Olympus and have my eyes on the EM1 – although my favorite to use camera is the Panasonic GX7 and have two of those – the EM1 is more of a work horse camera and a better grip but GX7 still more fun to use –
I think the manufacturers have come out with to many models – which is costly – in the film days there where much fewer models – but also less competition I think – but now I think there are more camera buyers – so not sure what is causing these camera companies to struggle – of course Canon owns the US market and retailers are not giving Olympus and Panasonic and Fuji and Pentax much self space –
I hope Olympus can survive this lawsuit – not only for the sake of cameras but also medical devices as we do not need to see those manufacturers go under either – just hard to imagine a giant like Sony struggling but I hear they have
I agree, good points you brought up.
Does that mean prices will go up to make for the losses, or go down to compete more? I was postponing a lens purchase hoping it will go down in price but with this news not sure what to do anymore haha Should I rush to get it?
I’m not waiting to long before I get my OMD em1. If they are forced to go out of business I can see prices go down a bit. I do expect Sony to take them over once price is right and case is over as they already own a chunk of Olympus and that would mean higher prices 🙂
I’m a huge fan of olympus, but that might be more of a reflection of their engineers and branding. As far as this goes, I think they deserve to be sued. Justice is justice and I hope new management can pull out of it. Actions have consequences- period.
Read up on the fraud Olympus committed here. It’s not something that should just be brushed off, and they were dealing with some pretty unsavory people.
I’m not justifying the wrong. But having worked for banks for almost 20 years I find it ironic as banks are as shady as company’s get. They are just clever in their schemes and we only seen A fraction of it during the crash