The former president of under-fire Olympus has been arrested in Tokyo, prosecutors said Thursday, the latest twist in one of the biggest ever financial scandals to rock corporate Japan. Tsuyoshi Kikukawa - who has been named as a key player in a scheme to shift $1.7 billion of losses from the camera-maker's balance sheet - was arrested on suspicion of violating laws banning falsification of financial statements.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said in a statement it had also arrested former vice president Hisashi Mori, 54, former auditor Hideo Yamada, 67, as well as former brokerage house executive Akio Nakagawa, 61. Three other former officials of another brokerage house were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department, the prosecutor's office said. All seven conspired to falsify Olympus's balance sheet, reporting that its consolidated net assets stood at 344.871 billion yen ($4.4 billion) in fiscal 2006 instead of 233.737 billion yen, the prosecutors' statement said.