Investigation Results on Fuji Xerox A/NZ Accounting Released

An independent committee, appointed by Fujifilm, has released the results of an investigation on unreliable accounting practices at Fuji Xerox Australia and Fuji Xerox New Zealand.

According to channelnews.com, Fujifilm has restated its financial result for the past six years FY2011-16, pointing out the cumulative impact on net income amounted to  ¥28.1 billion ($331 million) and on equity ¥37.5bn ($442m), for a total of $773 million.

Years of suspect accounting practices have had a dramatic impact on Fuji Xerox Australia and Fuji Xerox New Zealand. Recently, the company’s chairman and several top-level executives were brought down due to this scandal, including chairman Tadahito Yamamoto, deputy president Haruhito Yoshida, executive VP Katshiko Yanagawa, and several other executives.

The anonymous managing director of Fuji Xerox Australia and New Zealand, “Mr. A”, was primarily held liable for the incident. Based on the investigation, he was dismissed on April 16, 2016, and still scored a payout around $1.03 million.

The head of the New Zealand First party, Winston Peters noted: “Mr A’s departure coincides with that of Fuji Xerox’s former boss, Neil Whittaker.” He said Fuji Xerox NZ insiders had described the company as “the Wild West” and “Sales staff wrote and approved their own contracts.”

Interestingly, New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had previously investigated the company yet found nothing wrong.

Peters commented: “Despite Fuji Xerox NZ behaving like a Kiwi Enron, the SFO gave it the all-clear just before Christmas. Within a matter of a few months Fujifilm’s forensic accountants, Deloitte, had found the fraud the SFO could not.”

He continued, “New Zealand First calls out Fuji Xerox’s NZ’s ex-auditors, EY, or Ernst & Young as they used to be called. Enron’s fraud brought down Arthur Andersen and Fujifilm has every right to go after EY.”