InfoAnda - Exclusive: Records raise Olympus conflict of interest question |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Analysis: Bumpy road in Africa for Europe's telco vendors | 16 February 2011
Major operators to roll out LiMo phones this year | | 20 May 2010
Sentencing for chief in celebrity surrogate case | 30 December 2009

Thailand holds by-elections in key test for new PM | 11 January 2009

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Exclusive: Records raise Olympus conflict of interest question |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Green Business Legal Deals Earnings Summits Business Video Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia Afghan Journal Africa Journal India Insight Global News Journal Pakistan: Now or Never? World Video Politics Politics Home Front Row Washington Politics Video Technology Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland Felix Salmon Jack Shafer Breakingviews David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Gregg Easterbrook Nader Mousavizadeh James Saft David Cay Johnston Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Mohamed El-Erian Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Newsmaker Money Money Home Analyst Research Global Investing MuniLand Reuters Money Blog John Wasik Unstructured Finance Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Life & Culture Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Left Field Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Article Comments (1) Editor's Choice World needs to update its flu vaccines: study China to launch unmanned space-docking craft RIM delays PlayBook update, stalls Messenger Statue of Liberty to sport webcams from its torch Asthma drugs may increase attacks in kids: report Hurricane Rina nears Mexico's beach resorts Environment: Coke’s new look: polar-bear white MediaFile: Software goes cheap, cheaper, cheapest Slideshow: Bangkok under water Video: The Digital Drum debuts in Uganda Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Merkel: 50 pct haircut to cut Greek debt by 100 bln euros 26 Oct 2011 Newsmaker: Gaddafi son may prefer surrender to death, after all | 9:03am EDT Sony buys Ericsson out of mobile phone venture 8:08am EDT Special report: Harrisburg: a city at war with itself 12:03pm EDT Rina weakens to storm as nears Mexican resorts 11:43am EDT Discussed 292 Obama to announce help on housing, student loans 88 Fraud case leaves California Democrats scrambling 86 Nazi jokes, wrath at Germans highlight Greek despair Watched Video purports to show Gaddafi capture Mon, Oct 24 2011 Euro Hawk a new eye in the sky for Germany Wed, Oct 26 2011 Gaddafi son may prefer surrender to death Wed, Oct 26 2011 Exclusive: Records raise Olympus conflict of interest question Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Olympus sticks to defense of deals despite skepticism 6:31am EDT Creditors seen backing Olympus despite widening scandal 7:12am EDT Analysis & Opinion Tech wrap: Olympus shares tumble Atlanta reaps WrestleMania windfall Related Topics Technology » Japan » Olympus's logo is seen through its waterproof housing at an electronics shop in Tokyo October 20, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon By Kevin Krolicki and Emi Emoto DETROIT/TOKYO | Thu Oct 27, 2011 7:12am EDT DETROIT/TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. patent records point to a possible conflict of interest in an Olympus investment in a cookware company, raising more questions for investors demanding a full explanation from the Japanese company of acquisitions that made heavy losses. A venture capitalist who managed an Olympus fund that invested $225 million in the new enterprise was part-owner of a cookware patent which he transferred to the target business, just as Olympus was pouring money into it, various documents appear to show. The records do not reveal if he made any personal gain from the patent deal and Olympus declined to say if the venture capitalist and the patent holder are the same person, even though they have the same name. Olympus has lost half its market value since its sacked CEO released internal documents showing the firm spent $773 million on the cookware company and two other businesses from 2006-2008 in deals that have largely been written off. They also show Olympus paid the world's fattest advisory fee, $687 million for the $2.2 billion purchase of British medical-equipment maker Gyrus. The maker of cameras and medical equipment is under pressure from investors to explain the purchases. The sacked CEO, Michael Woodford, has pressed authorities in Britain and Japan to investigate. The FBI is looking into the $687 million advisory fee, most of it paid to a now-defunct Cayman Islands firm. Even though Olympus has insisted the acquisitions were strategic and involved no wrongdoing, the number of questions is growing. Several brokerages have suspended their ratings on the company, citing uncertainty and the difficulty of carrying out accurate analysis in the absence of more information. The leaked Olympus documents and U.S. patent records shine a light on two brothers, Nobumasa and Akinobu Yokoo, who were engaged in separate capacities by Olympus to scout out new businesses for the group. Nobumasa, the younger brother, managed an Olympus venture capital fund through which the group began investing in the three businesses that were to soak up $773 million in capital, the leaked documents show. One of them was Tokyo-based News Chef Inc, specialising in microwave cookware, a radical departure from Olympus's core medical and optical businesses and one that would cost about $186 million in writedowns, the documents show. The News Chef investment started in May 2006 and ended in April 2008. Shortly after those investments began, records at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show a rice-cooking patent acquired two years earlier by a man called Nobumasa Yokoo and three others was assigned to a Tokyo-based firm called News Inc. The records show that at that time News Inc shared the same eight-storey downtown Tokyo building as Olympus's News Chef Inc. The building no longer houses either firm. Olympus reiterated on Thursday there was nothing improper or illegal about the way it handled deals arranged through the fund, which was set up in 2000 at the peak of the dot-com boom. CONCERNS MOUNT "Olympus has been denying all of the various media reports, which makes it difficult to comment, but if a holder of a patent was an advisor on a related deal that could end up being a problem from a conflict of interest perspective," said Yuta Ishinoda, analyst at credit rating agency R&I, which this month put Olympus on watch for possible downgrade. "That said, we don't know if that is true or not, and that makes it difficult to comment. The desirable course of action for the company would be to disclose information that addresses allegations and is convincing to investors." U.S. corporate governance expert Charles Elson also said the circumstances raised questions, especially if Olympus's fund manager personally had an interest in a target company. "That's why typically in U.S. companies transactions between officers and the company, if not prohibited, are severely limited. It depends. If he had no interest in this company then it really isn't an issue," said Elson, director of the University of Delaware's John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. The patent records do not show if any payments were involved in the various transfers of the patent for a rice-cooking device for use in microwave ovens. Nobumasa and the other three had obtained the patent, filed in 2004 and granted in 2005, from the inventor. The patent says it can produce rice in a microwave of "a superior flavor with shiny, silver-like grains and a plump and tender core." Investors and regulators are starting to question the various deals after they were publicized by Woodford. He says the acquisition of Gyrus in 2008 and the three smaller purchases have destroyed $1.3 billion of shareholder value in the company. Teikoku Databank, a credit research firm, says News Chef Inc made a loss of 2.2 billion yen ($29 million) on sales of 600 million yen in the year to March 2011. News Chef's offices are now located in a half-deserted building in Tokyo. It employs a few dozen people. Reuters visited the Tokyo address given by the U.S. Patent Office as the home of Nobumasa Yokoo. The front gates of the two-storey home in an upmarket neighborhood bear the Yokoo family nameplate and is overlooked by a verandah fringed with flowers. A woman who answered the doorbell declined to comment when Reuters called to inquire about Nobumasa Yokoo. She did not respond to further rings of the doorbell. Nobumasa Yokoo was cited in a 2009 audit report commissioned by Olympus after questions were raised internally about the venture capital fund's investments in News Chef and other companies. The fund was wound up in 2007, a copy of the audit report obtained by Reuters shows. Nobumasa is listed in a Japanese corporate registry as president of Global Chef, although this listing was dated July 28. It is not clear when he ended his ties to Olympus. Global Chef is also in microwave cookware, its Web site shows. The audit, which cleared Olympus management of any illegal activity or gross negligence, also looked at the question of a possible conflict of interest between Nobumasa Yokoo and his older brother, Akinobu, then a senior executive of Olympus. OLDER BROTHER Akinobu was an Olympus executive officer, not a board position, between 2005 and 2009, which overlapped the period when the Olympus venture fund made investments in News Chef. He denies any conflict of interest. "I have never conducted business with my younger brother apart from one time, in an agricultural business using an old Olympus factory site," Akinobu Yokoo said when Reuters spoke with him at his three-storey house in Tokyo. "I was aware that my brother was pitching deals to Olympus, but I was working in China for them at the time and was not involved," he said as he left for work in his current role as head of JALUX, a unit of Japan Airlines. Akinobu said he spent much of his time outside head office and generally did not see his brother much. He said he had not seen Nobumasa since the Olympus scandal broke. The 2009 audit report found no conflict of interest on Akinobu Yokoo's part. "We did not find any circumstances indicating that Akinobu tried to earn personal gain in connection with the fund, and Akinobu and the directors of Olympus stated that no such circumstances existed," it said. ($1=76.11 yen) (Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Taiga Uranaka and Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO; Writing by Mark Bendeich, Editing by Dean Yates and Neil Fullick) Technology Japan Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (1) Tiu wrote: It’s what happens when organised crime is allowed to take over a company or a country. Oct 27, 2011 10:03am EDT -- Report as abuse See All Comments » Add Your Comment Social Stream (What's this?) Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Contact Us Advertise With Us Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Thursday, 27 October 2011
World Series game six postponed to Thursday night; heavy rain forecasted
Cubs new GM Theo Epstein looks to chat with Quade, respects Sandberg
Qaddafi family claims NATO killed Libyan leader, issues war crimes suit
Denver gets season's first snow as Obama visits
Home sales rises 5.7% in September
New Las Vegas ice skating rink to open in time for winter
Richest 1% of Americans saw incomes 275%, poorest fifth only rose by 18% over 30 years
Assist to Sedins: brothers off to hot start for Canucks
Top former Wall Street executive faces years in prison, millions in fine
Saudi cleric offers cash for Israel soldier kidnap |
Comedian, speaker, and the world’s only Professional Summarizer, Dale Irvin for Accidental Guru Radio Live Out-Side Broadcast!
Tunisian Islamists to propose their man for PM's job |
Bruce Willis, Emma Heming expecting baby |
Kid Rock eyes new album mixing musical styles |
Adele's 21 regains top spot on Billboard chart |
Lionel Richie going country with duets album |
Rare early Smurf drawings on sale in Paris |
Gaddafi son wants to surrender to ICC, says NTC |
Turk quake survivors desperate for tents as cold descends |
U.S. drone kills five Taliban commanders in Pakistan |
Mexican presidential hopeful vows drugs war shift |
Super Committee Dems ready $400 billion Medicare plan
Carling Cup: Manchester City rips Wolverhampton, advances into quarterfinals
Jays’ altered club policy to quash John Farrell, Red Sox reunion
Life sentence for Argentine Blond Angel of Death |
Man who gave cash, discounted tattoos to Buckeyes football players gets prison time
Bangkok residents flee as floods undermine dikes |
Bus driver-turned-militant takes on Pakistan again |
Reformist Japan farmers urge free trade to spur change |
Sony buys full control of Sony Ericsson |
Nintendo slashes forecast again to just break even |
RIM hit with consumer lawsuits over BlackBerry outage |
Sharp cuts outlook as TV sales slide |
Analysis: Amazon's Bezos stares down Wall Street again |
Google paid $151 million for Zagat: filing |
Olympus shares surge after chief quits |
Virgin Media reassures with solid third quarter growth |
Chaz Bono returns to OWN, blasts penguin jibes |
We Need to Talk About Kevin wins London film prize |
Insurgents attack two foreign bases in Afghan south |
Exxon profits jump 41 percent in third quarter
Pakistan military denies BBC report on Taliban links |
Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel critical of team's upper management
UK scientists breed super broccoli
Hunger hormone linked to weight gain
Egyptians cross home, U.S.-Israeli leaves Egypt in swap |
Ohio State energized by Wisconsin loss, but will Buckeyes benefit?
Analysis: Defections test Assad's ability to sustain crackdown |
Michael Lohan arrested again in Tampa
Sahel the danger zone for food insecurity
Mothers-to-be most at risk from inadequate Ugandan health budget
Government must account for Mt. Elgon disappearances
West Africans building resilience in the Sahel
Italians, Greeks skeptical over euro zone rescue plan |
Former Mubarak associate to run for president |
Tunisian Islamists await word on election win |
Exclusive: Records raise Olympus conflict of interest question |
Facebook likes Sweden for first Europe server site |
Asian chipmakers see gloomy Q4; 2012 a bit brighter |
Logitech retains goals after bounce back into black |
Casey Anthony, Marilyn Manson top list of creepy celebs |
Elite Polish cops sacked for protecting Paris Hilton |
Lindsay Lohan's father arrested again in Florida |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01