Olympus has confirmed that pension funds run by Lloyds TSB Group; HBOS; Pearson Group; Shell; Nationwide; and the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames are among corporate investors named in the lawsuit, details of which Olympus’s Japanese headquarters received yesterday.
The scandal, one of the largest of its type in Japan, initially wiped more than 75% off the company’s share price.
The investors are seeking damages from Olympus, totaling around 5.9 billion yen, for making false financial statements by deferring losses in company accounts, from 2000-2011.
In a statement, Olympus Tokyo said on 1 April: ‘The impact of the lawsuit on the company’s results of operation is not clear at this stage due to uncertainty of the financial impact.’
Meanwhile, three former Olympus executives face years in prison for their role in the cover-up.
Japanese prosecutors are seeking a five-year jail term for former Olympus chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, four and a half years for former Olympus auditor Hideo Yamada and four years for former executive vice-president Hisashi Mori, according to a report in The Japan Times following a hearing in the Tokyo District Court last week.
