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Storyville :$1.7 billion fraud : BBC4
Doghouse Riley
Posts: 32,491 Forum Member
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Another excellent documentary in this series by the BBC.
No wavy handed narrator, no dumbing down, just a voice over and interviews with "real people" and clips from the Olympus board being interviewed, "lying their faces off" at televised news conferences.
How the main directors of Olympus, bought three worthless shell companies for $773 million and paid out $687 million as a "consultancy fee" to hide company loses.
When Chief exec. Michael Woodford, suspected the fraud had been committed, he was summarily fired at a board meeting..
The Japanese directors continued to deny the fraud, many times, first reported in a little known Japanese magazine, (none of the major Japanese nationals would take up the story, for fear of losing Olympus advertising revenue).
This denial went on until finally only after a publicised inquiry did they come clean.
Even then the culture in Japan protected the guilty, in that after being prosecuted they were only given suspended sentences, "as they didn't profit from the fraud."
I'd have thought keeping a well paid job whilst committing fraud, was "profit."
Woodford sued Olympus for wrongful dismissal and was awarded twelve million.
This held my attention from start to finish.
No wavy handed narrator, no dumbing down, just a voice over and interviews with "real people" and clips from the Olympus board being interviewed, "lying their faces off" at televised news conferences.
How the main directors of Olympus, bought three worthless shell companies for $773 million and paid out $687 million as a "consultancy fee" to hide company loses.
When Chief exec. Michael Woodford, suspected the fraud had been committed, he was summarily fired at a board meeting..
The Japanese directors continued to deny the fraud, many times, first reported in a little known Japanese magazine, (none of the major Japanese nationals would take up the story, for fear of losing Olympus advertising revenue).
This denial went on until finally only after a publicised inquiry did they come clean.
Even then the culture in Japan protected the guilty, in that after being prosecuted they were only given suspended sentences, "as they didn't profit from the fraud."
I'd have thought keeping a well paid job whilst committing fraud, was "profit."
Woodford sued Olympus for wrongful dismissal and was awarded twelve million.
This held my attention from start to finish.
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Comments
It'll be worth catching up on iPlayer.
Some directors never change, regardless of nationality.
Many can "talk bollox with authority."
Even the usually respectful journalists at these press conferences were saying.
"You aren't answering our questions!"
I'm not sure who had the bigger set of balls....Woodford, or the Japanese guys who dared to come out and publicly support him organising the website etc. All credit to them.
It was a really fascinating programme from beginning to end but i can't say i was shocked or surprised at the revelations. It just made me wonder how many more major 'respectable' companies indulge fraud.
Woodford successfully sued Olympus for £7.8 million so God knows what his salary was like!
He was born in my home county of Staffordshire but moved to Liverpool with his mother when he was seven years old. From humble beginnings he's certainly a lad done well for himself.
This on his Wiki page which doesn't bode too well;
It was apparent that this sort of mentality amongst the business hierarchy in Japan, still exists.
This excellent programme was in a stark contrast to the one which preceded it, "Climate Change By Numbers," which could have been titled; "Climate Change for Dummies" the way the information was presented.
It's surprising.....you don't have to go very far to experience cultural differences. My ex-wife is Swiss and of course, apart from the language they all look pretty much as we do.....but that's where it ends. Swiss have quite a different psyche and mindset to that of British. They don't worry too much about language barrier, but if you learn Schweizerdeutsch you really do gain total respect and complete acceptance.
I was actually surprised he didn't speak any Japanese. It's a different matter learning to read and write it. It would sure have been worth the effort.
I suppose languages are easier for kids. One of our sons' Swedish girlfriend had a four year-old daughter, the mother was a fluent English speaker, but the child didn't know a word of it.. He brought them both over to live in England and they chucked the kid into a State school. She was speaking adequate conversational English within six months.
I despair of some parents who are bi-lingual. A girl of around nineteen once worked for me, who had an Italian father. She couldn't speak a word of Italian, her father couldn't be bothered to teach her and she couldn't be bothered to learn.
She didn't appreciate by how much her employment "market value" would have increased, if she could speak Italian.
My ex-wife is fluent in five languages and it was always a mistake to get into an argument with her because her command in English was top notch. Most people from various European countries put us to shame when it comes to languages.
In Poland i once met a guy a few years older than myself. I never expect English from anyone older in any countries but this guy was unbelievably fluent. Not only was he familiar with all British idioms, he could rattle away in English just as fast as anyone here. Even more amazing.....he was entirely self taught having been educated in Poland during Russian occupation (which was really his first language though he preferred to feel Polish was).
I asked how he had managed it and he told me if he heard anyone speaking English anywhere, he'd sit and listen. Any books, magazines etc he could get his hands on, he'd grab them.
Due to his command of English he'd worked all over the world in ship building before retiring.
As for English it's an international language so easier to meet people who speak it and easier to pick up. It will be taught at schools with that importance in mind. Having said that English isn't spoken that well by most in Japan I believe. Maybe it has a bit of an island mentality like us. But that will probably have to change as its population declines..
To be fair, he went to Japan expecting to be told who was going to be made President, not that he was actually going to be the Prez. Being in charge of European operations, perhaps he didn't have much need to speak Japanese. Do we know if he speaks any other languages?
Although I enjoyed the show, I didn't really understand what the scheme was. I don't get how buying a Van Gough for 40 million moved their debt abroad, or the later shenanegans with the consultancy and worthless companies. Olympus paid for these things, so that's money they no longer have. how does that wipe out their debs?
Sorry for being a bit dim here.