The Olympus scandal: Coming clean

THE aftershocks of this financial temblor will be felt for years to come. Olympus, a Japanese camera maker plagued by an accounting scandal, finally submitted revised earnings statements today. And the financial hit was even more massive than many had expected: net assets came in ¥105 billion ($1.3 billion) lower and now reach a meagre ¥46 billion; last year's net profit was halved to ¥3.9 billion.Olympus's release of the new statements was itself an accomplishment. The firm needed to revise five years worth of annual accounts. This required auditors to look as far back as the 1990s, when the investment losses that were at the origin of the accounting scandal were still on the books. The Japanese camera maker also needed to submit its financial statements for the past fiscal quarter. By meeting the deadline of December 14th, Olympus avoided having its shares being automatically delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange.