FBI launches inquiry into £431m payment to Olympus adviser

The FBI is understood to be investigating the £431 million advisory fee involved in Olympus’s takeover of UK medical equipment firm Gyrus as the controversy continued to put pressure on the Japanese company’s shares yesterday.

The former Olympus chief executive Michael Woodford also called on authorities in the UK and Japan to investigate the payments. Woodford claims he was fired for questioning the payment to advisers in the £1.4 billion takeover of Gyrus in 2008.

Olympus is struggling to contain the crisis at the 92-year-old company following Woodford’s revelations, although it said yesterday that the replacement of its auditors in 2009 was not linked to the Gyrus acquisition.

Woodford, 51, who spent three decades at Olympus, has identified the advisory firms involved in the takeover as New York-based Axes America and Axam Investments in the Cayman Islands.

Olympus acknowledges it made the payment and denies any wrongdoing, but it has not explained why it should have agreed to a fee that amounted to about a third of the value of the takeover when such fees normally come to about 1 per cent.

Documents provided by Woodford show that Olympus appointed a three-person external panel in May 2009 to look into the Gyrus takeover and three other deals, but it didn’t identify any problems.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said yesterday that it was urging Olympus to disclose more information about the controversial payments and will look carefully at any third-party investigation into the case. Last week, Olympus bowed to investor pressure and announced it was setting up an external panel of lawyers and accountants to investigate its past deals.

Olympus said it fired Woodford after clashes over management style, while Woodford said he was dismissed for calling on senior executives to resign over the payments.