The camera company Olympus has been under fire recently for covering up a $1.7 billion loss in their company that had accumulated since the 1990’s. This money lost had been covered up by using outsized consulting fees and buying unrelated companies. This report of improper accounting was filed nearly two years ago by an investor who claimed “a loss cover-up by Olympus executives was responsible for its plunging stock price”.

Olympus, in order to settle this lawsuit with the US based investor who filed the claim, agreed to pay $2.6 million. When the accounting scandal first broke in the media, the share price of Olympic stock decreased dramatically, but now that Olympus has agreed to reconcile their improper accounting, their share price has gone up slightly, “now about 25 percent higher than before the loss cover-up was exposed”.

In addition to paying the lawsuit, Olympus has also been issued millions of dollars in penalties by courts and regulators. If Olympus had initially tried to deal with any problems or properly accounted their losses instead of covering up their mistakes, Olympus would most likely be successful instead of a disgrace and would not have to go through all the trouble of paying additional fees and being looked down upon.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130927-olympus-pays-us-investors-26-mn-over-accounting-scandal