Ex-executives agree to pay settlement to Olympus over scandal

Japanese camera giant Olympus said today former executives had agreed to pay more than USD 638,000 in an out-of-court settlement after the company sued them over a huge loss cover-up scandal.
It was the latest turn in an affair that badly damaged Japan's corporate governance image and turned the company's first foreign leader into a high-profile whistleblower.
The Tokyo-based firm in 2012 sued 19 former executives for their responsibility over the cover-up following its internal investigation.
A total of 13 of them recently reached a settlement by agreeing to pay a total of 71,970,000 yen (USD 638,600) to the company said in a statement, Olympus said, adding it would continue negotiations with the remaining six.

Its whistleblowing former chief Michael Woodford, the company's first foreign leader, exposed the scheme in late 2011 after he was sacked for questioning the firm's past conduct.
Olympus, which faced massive penalties related to the cover-up, has since undergone a major overhaul that included cutting about seven percent of its workforce and forging a capital tie-up with electronics giant Sony.