Scandal-tainted Olympus directors resign

Three directors accused of being involved in the accounting scandal surrounding Olympus have resigned from the Japanese company and more are expected to leave in the coming months as part of a management overhaul, a report noted.

According to the Financial Times (FT) report on Thursday, the resignations was the latest attempt to put a lid on what is turning into one of Japan's largest accounting scandal, which involved more than US$1 billion in diverted funds and misstated financial reports over a period of two decades.

The three men who resigned--Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, Hisashi Mori and Hideo Yamada--had already given up or were stripped of their executive posts but they remained on the Olympus board, the report added.

Their resignations came on the eve of the board meeting that Michael Woodford, the former Olympus CEO who exposed the accounting irregularities following his sacking last month, was to attend. Of the latest developments, he said the entire Olympus board is "contaminated" and lauded the resignations as an "encouraging development".

FT also cited a statement by Olympus' president Shuichi Takayama, who suggested that other top executive would stand aside at the company's annual shareholder meeting next summer.

"We managers are prepared to give up our jobs when the road to Olympus' recovery is visible," he said. "It would be intolerable for current management to engage in self-protection."