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FujiFilm Australia Under Investigation, Major Accounting Scandal

It’s been revealed that Fujifilm Australia, has been under investigation for several months in what has been described as a major “accounting scandal” that could affect the Company’s global results.

Overnight FujiFilm Holdings revealed the investigation claiming that accounting irregularities at their Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries were likely to impact the Company’s overall performance.

They said that accounting irregularities in New Zealand were much larger than first thought and extended to the company’s Australian office-equipment unit.

The irregularities stem from leasing agreements the Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries made with their office equipment customers allowing them to pay monthly usage fees. In some instances, there was no clear minimum usage requirement, leading to doubts about whether the fees would be sufficient for Fujifilm to recover costs, the company said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Japanese camera and copier maker said six board members at its mainstay subsidiary Fuji Xerox would resign to take responsibility for losses that ballooned to $340 million between fiscal 2010 and 2015.

The Company also docked pay from all the board members at Fuji Xerox and two senior group executives. Only one of the resigning board members will stay with the company.

In Australia FujiFilm has undergone a major downsizing at their NSW headquarters, Sony Australia, another Japanese Company did the same when they were involved in an accounting and tax scandal.

Fujifilm said the scandal-related losses shouldn’t widen further because it had reviewed all existing contracts.

At this stage, it’s not known how many Australian contracts are affected.

The latest example of Japanese accounting irregularities is likely to add to investors’ concerns over corporate governance at Japan’s companies, after a long-running accounting scandal at Toshiba and Olympus.

There was also last year’s admission by Mitsubishi Motors that it falsified fuel-efficiency data for some of its cars.

Fujifilm said that back in April 2017 they launched an independent investigation into irregularities at its New Zealand Fuji Xerox unit, several months after the first reports of problems at the company.

The findings by the third-party panel released Monday showed that the losses in New Zealand were larger than first thought and that an Australian sales subsidiary had followed similarly inappropriate accounting practices.

Too much leeway had been given to Fuji Xerox to follow different practices from its parent company because the unit had helped support Fujifilm’s bottom line as the company tried to reinvent itself in response to the digital revolution, said Kenji Sukeno, Fujifilm’s president and chief operating officer.

“We showed too much respect for Fuji Xerox because it contributed to profits when Fujifilm was reforming itself after its film business peaked in 2000. We didn’t nag at Fuji Xerox very much, and that is something we now regret,” Mr. Sukeno said at a news conference after the release of the company’s delayed earnings for the business year ended March 31.

Fujifilm didn’t apply internal rules for managing its subsidiaries to Fuji Xerox, the company said. Those rules covered areas such as business strategy, personnel changes and capital expenditure.

The irregularities stem from leasing agreements the New Zealand and Australian units made with customers allowing them to pay monthly usage fees. In some instances, there was no clear minimum usage requirement, leading to doubts about whether the fees would be sufficient for Fujifilm to recover costs, the company said.



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