An independent committee has released its findings with direct impacts.
Channel News reported that after investigations into the accounts of Fuji Xerox New Zealand and Australia revealed discrepancies, Fujifilm Holdings appointed an independent committee to “review the accounting practices of the subsidiaries” and found that the “cumulative impact on net income” came to 28.1 billion yen ($4.1/€3.6 million) and on “equity” 37.5 billion yen ($336/€298 million).
Several executives have already resigned, Tadahito Yamamoto, Chairman, Haruhito Yoshida, Deputy President and Katshika Yanagawa, Executive Vice President as well as others as the accounting practices of “costs being booked as assets and carried over into subsequent years” were revealed.
A mysterious Mr A has been identified as the person to bare the blame, he was the Managing Director of the company but was dismissed in April 2016 after a payout of US$0.78 million (€0.7million).
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s head of First party, has been a critic of the governments dealings with Fuji Xerox and said: “Mr A’s departure coincides with that of Fuji Xerox’s former boss, Neil Whittaker.” He also said that insiders at the company described it as the “wild west” and “Sales staff wrote and approved their own contracts.”
Peters commented: “Print volumes, even from schools, were ‘hydraulicked’ to extort money from its own finance wing. Copier sales staff became multimillionaire property developers. Lamborghini dealers smiled.”
Even though New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigated they found nothing wrong as well as the company’s auditors EY and Peters further commented: “Despite Fuji Xerox NZ behaving like a Kiwi Enron, the SFO gave it the all-clear just before Christmas. Within a matter of a few months Fujifilm’s forensic accountants, Deloitte, had found the fraud the SFO could not.
“New Zealand First calls out Fuji Xerox’s NZ’s ex-auditors, EY, or Ernst & Young as they used to be called. Enron’s fraud brought down Arthur Andersen and Fujifilm has every right to go after EY.”