Woodford gives up fight to return as CEO of Olympus, warns of legal action

Former Olympus president and CEO Michael Woodford has decided to give up his fight to regain the top post, citing cozy ties between management and large Japanese shareholders that would prevent him from heading the disgraced corporation again.

''Despite one of the biggest scandals in history, the Japanese institutional shareholders have not spoken one single word of criticism, in complete and utter contrast with the overseas shareholders who were demanding accountability,'' Woodford told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday. ''I thought, perhaps very naively, they would speak out.''

The two largest shareholders in the company include Nippon life Insurance Co (with an 8.26 per cent stake) and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd (4.89 per cent). While Woodford had appealed to the large shareholders to back him in his bid to oust the existing management, he claims they were non-commital. However, he had the backing of other international shareholders.

Woodford, who first raised an alarm at the leading Japanese endoscope and camera-maker about illegal payments made to shady middle-men, was sacked days after he was made CEO in October last.

An independent panel headed by a former supreme court judge came out with a damning indictment of the top management in the Japanese firm in December, accusing it of perpetrating a $1.7-billion accounting fraud (See: Probe panel indicts top Olympus executives in $1.7-bn accounting scam).

While giving up his fight to regain the top post, Woodford, a Briton who had worked for the Japanese camera-maker for several decades, warned that he would sue the company for wrongfully dismissing him. He said he had instructed his lawyer to initiate legal action in Britain against Olympus (See: Former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford keen to return at the helm of troubled firm).