This case study talks about a man, Michael Woodfoors, a England native, who became

the president and Chief Operating Officer of Olympus Corporation, a Japanese

corporation. Michael was the first person to hold this position in the company’s nearly
century existence who was not Japanese. Michael was made aware of some fraud
allegations against the company about three months into the job, (Morgan & Burnside,
2014). He further investigated and found out the truth. This case’s main problem is that
the company incurred losses worth over a billion dollars and its former President and
higher position executives engaged in fraud and corruption by convincing banks to aid
in hiding such fact. As Michael investigated the allegations, he soon came to find out
that people weren’t talking.

People at Olympus Corporation were technically bribed to remain silent by being

promoted to higher positions. Consequently, not many people talked and other
employees became controlled. Michael was told by employees that they couldn’t talk
and he in turn got fired after putting effort to find the alleged fraudulent actions.
Michael’s job was made more difficult because of the Japanese culture where fraud
detection is hard. The culture encourages that they are dependent on each other, yet
are discouraged to speak out against each other. This is similar to my country as people
get scared to act out against companies if it entails a loss. Nonetheless, there is no set
whistleblowing law. companies and projects like “Haiti Now” (2017) discourage
whistleblowing on paper, but it is now a law.

Haiti Now (2017) Whistleblower Protection Policy.

https://www.haiti-now.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WhistleblowerPolicy-2017.pdf
Morgan, A. R. & Burnside, C. (2014). Olympus corporation financial statement fraud case
study: The role that national culture plays on detecting and deterring fraud. Journal of
Business Case Studies, 10(2), 175-184.
https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1600694/mod_book/chapter/359505/
U6%20Olympus%20Financial%20Fraud.pdf
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