Independent panel to probe ex-Toshiba execs’ liability in $1.3B accounting scandal

Toshiba (TYO:6502) said today that it’s establishing an independent panel to examine whether its former executives and directors, including ex-CEO Hisao Tanaka, should face liability for the $1.3 billion accounting scandal that’s pared some 23% from the Japanese conglomerate’s share price since it broke in July.

Tanaka and 7 other senior Toshiba executives resigned July 21 after admitting that they cooked the books to show inflated profits. Toshiba confirmed last week that it overstated profits going back to fiscal 2008/09 by some $1.29 billion (¥155 billion), reporting a -$314.6 million net loss (-¥37.8 billion) for the last financial year through March.

Today the beleaguered company said it’s establishing an Executive Liability Investigation Committee of independent legal experts with no connections to the company or its former officials “to make an appropriate and fair judgment on whether current and former directors and executive officers of the company bear liability for negligence in their duties related to the inappropriate accounting, and whether the company should enforce liability against current and former directors and executive officers.”

The probe covers executives and directors at Toshiba from fiscal 2008 through the 3rd quarter of 2014. The panel members are chairman Chikatsuji Ouchi, former president of the Sapporo High Court; Satoru Fujimura, former deputy director and judge at the Tokyo High Court; and Mikio Yamaguchi, former deputy public prosecutor at the Hiroshima public prosecutor’s office, the company said.

Results from the report will be published immediately once the company receives it, Toshiba said, at which time it plans to decide whether to take action against the former officials.

The post Independent panel to probe ex-Toshiba execs’ liability in $1.3B accounting scandal appeared first on MassDevice.

from MassDevice http://ift.tt/1izTg9V