Updates & Followups: October 21st

• Woodford Goes to Scotland Yard: In a Reuters video, ousted Olympus CEO Michael Woodford says that after turning over more information to the Serious Fraud Office in London, he has been advised to go to the British police to seek help protecting his personal safety. He says in the video that there is the "potential" that organized crime in Japan might be involved.

Meanwhile, I've had some conversations with an expert in the field of what you might call forensic accounting, someone whose job it is to analyze the accounts and paper trails from companies accused of crimes. He can't speak on the record, as he is not authorized to speak for his firm, so his impressions are merely his personal opinion.

He told me that the missing money paid to the shadowy Cayman Islands company that can no longer be located or identified does indeed suggest theft, but that his gut feeling is that the Olympus case is probably one of misstating financial statements. Some companies will move money offshore or off the books using questionable practices in order to move it back on to the books again when and where it's needed—to mask undesirable losses or provide desired (but fake) "profits." He notes that the rest of the Board of Directors would be likely be a good deal more upset if all that money was actually gone.

(He also mentioned that he's known of cases where officers of companies stole money from their own companies to "pay" themselves for their shady accounting! I guess nothing should surprise us.)

He think Michael Woodford probably did what he had to do. He thinks that Woodford probably found out things that put himself and his personal fortune at risk.

A fascinating case, and one we'll be following with interest. Meanwhile, Olympus stock has been in freefall, so the scandal no doubt has the full attention of the Directors and the investors—although it does seem to me like it's one of those sensations that will have a pretty short half-life in the news cycle.

Canon EOS 1DX: A friend thinks that my flippant rehearsing of the announcement of the new Canon flagship the other day missed the mark. He notes the coming camera has all-new AE and AF systems and really has been extensively reworked—always assuming, of course, that the camera when it gets here will deliver on its promises. Rather than just a refresh, he thinks the 1DX is more like the jump in core capability that Nikon made from the D2x to the D3—like the new generations of long-running car models that arrive every four or five years rather than the annual trim freshening.

Small but significant change: Note the Pentax ad at the upper left-hand corner of this page. Notice what's changed?

Hopeless fan of...conifers: Re my post about disputations over exposure being a long-running thing, a reader signing himself struan (I think I know who he is—there can't be all that many Struans out there—but here on TOP we refer to commenters by their self-chosen "handles") points out that "Google books has a fun (but frustratingly incomplete) collection of early photographic journals. The correspondence pages are worse than Wikipedia for losing time in. Thomas Sutton can always be counted upon to raise controversy. He would have been right at home in today's online forums. Although, it has to be said, both he and his targets usually expressed themselves with an elegance which is rarely encountered online." Here's his example:

If you click on the image to make it bigger it will be easier to read. Baynham Jones does sound like a forumer of today: "Mr. Sutton calls me a Tom Noddy. This is, I conclude, something very dreadful; but although I have consulted Johnson [he means Johnson's dictionary —Ed.], and racked my brain for a derivation of the word, I am unable to arrive at its meaning." He goes on to define what he meant by "distortion," obviously defending himself against Mr. Sutton's witherings.

Kind of reminds me of an old post.

I thought the next letter was almost as funny—it's from a fellow who's plugging a "Photographic Exhibition of portraits of conifers," who effuses, "The practice of taking and collecting photographs of trees in general, and Conifers in particular, is now becoming common; and it is very desirable that it should be encouraged...."

That's right, a Conifer fanboi.

And all that from way back in 1864. Here's the link. Thanks to struan.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Hugh Crawford: "Well here is Mr. Noddy's camera."

Featured Comment by Edie Howe: "I can has "conifer fanboi," pweez? —Edie, Conifotographer Extraordinare. (Ancients on the Edge of Forever: the Beauty of the Bristlecones will be completed in 2012)."

Featured Comment by Dave: "I hear ya, Edie. I too pine for more conifer photos."

Featured Comment by struan: "Struan is my real name. It's a loan word from Norse into Scots Gaelic, and means stream. I should perhaps have included my surname as there is—amazingly, given the rarity of the name—a successful Canadian fashion photographer also called Struan. He bagged struanphoto.com before I could.

"There are a wealth of tongue-in-cheek references in Baynham-Jones' letter. Warrior and Tom-Noddy have been pegged already—I can confirm from personal experience that HMS Warrior is both worth a visit and photographer-friendly.

"I suspect the conifer thing is deeper than it looks. From calotype times onwards there was a thriving sub-industry in tree portraits (the British Library site has plenty), and the 1860s and '70s was a high age for introducing specimen trees from around the world, including many conifers from the Americas. Magnus Jackson photographed many of the first New World conifers in Scotland, and they are still rather proud of him in Perth. Hop to the last page of this gallery: the captioning on the site is haphazard, and misses much of the significance of some of the photos. For example, middle row, left hand image, is the first Douglas Fir planted in the UK.

"By the time Baynham-Jones was writing his letter I suspect conifers were a bit like today's wet-leaf-on-rock autumn shots. Or art projects about mobile telephony masts disguised as trees."

Comments

[Owen Murphy]

This is really hilarious. Yes, what ever you do, don't call me a "Tom Noddy"! Oh yeah, another thing, never call a woman a parallelogram unless you really mean it and are willing to suffer the resulting fury and indignation. I think these insults need to be brought back into common use.

[KeithB]

Here are some Canon articles about the new exposure system:
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/1dx_rgb_meter_article.shtml?categoryId=12

[Face detection in a non-live view DSLR!]

And the multiple exposure capability:
http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/1dx_multiple_exposures_article.shtml?categoryId=12

[It can't help but think that Photoshop is still the better tool for this!]

And I wonder if this conifer thing is pretty common in the UK. This seems to be where Monty Python got the bit where they show the slide of a tree and intone "Number 1, the larch".

[phil]

Hi Mike,
The "Warrior" ref intrigued me.
I found this photo from the 1870s; http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h52000/h52524.jpg
Good quality but his sensor needs cleaning....;-)

and it is still afloat;
http://www.hmswarrior.org/
not bad for the first British Ironclad.

best wishes phil

[John Camp]

This sequence makes some sense to me:

Woodford takes over as CEO, and as part of a general survey of the company and its finances, finds that something weird happened in this strange consultant arrangement -- something that might be characterized as illegal. He then has a choice: keep his mouth shut and do a tap dance, and hope that nobody notices; or call the cops.

He might well have thought about keeping his mouth shut, but if the disappearance of the money was odd enough, then it might be subject to discovery by auditors, or leaks by lower-level personnel. If he engaged in a cover-up after being notified of what happened, he might then possibly be looking at jail time. One auditing company had already expressed some unease about the situation -- perhaps it simply couldn't be contained.

He then covers himself (either out of simple self-protection, or because his personal ethics demand that he do so, or both) by writing his memo and going to police. He's apparently delivered some documentation to the cops, content unknown to us, which suggests to me that the situation may be extremely serious.

Apparently stockholders think so.

Your accountant friend may be right, in that this was simply an attempt by the company to temporarily move some money out of sight, and then repatriate it somehow without having to pay taxes.

But given Woodford's moves (and he is unlikely to be a particularly stupid man, given his career) it seems to me that something more sinister may be, as Sherlock Holmes would say, afoot.

[erlik]

Cheap shot: and now, the larch. :)

A Ricoh company? So apparently no real changes in the status? At least not for photographers?

[Edie Howe]

I can has "conifer fanboi", pweez?

Edie
Conifotographer Extraordinare.
("Ancients on the Edge of Forever, the Beauty of the Bristlecones" will be completed in 2012)

[dray]

Hoya?

[Andrew Roos]

It is possible that "Tom Noddy" refers to the principle character of the farce "Tom Noddy's Secret" by J Robinson, published in 1840. He is bumbling, indecisive and chronically forgetful, although well intentioned. See http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23415396M/Tom_Noddy%27s_secret .

[Paris]

Woodford could have kept quiet, but he's smart enough to know that that never works, and that he would eventually have had to face the accusation that he either didn't know, in which case he's stupid or incompetent, or he did know, in which case he's a crook.

The recent stories of Enron, Global Crossing, and many, many others, are instructive.

[Mike Johnston]

Andrew,
Sure, WE know that, but Jones didn't have Google in 1864. [g]

Mike

[Mike Plews]

Since Olympus isn't a US company Sarbanes-Oxley would not apply but I would pay good money to watch someone try to paddle that t**d past our auditors.

[Dennis Ng]

If it is really a criminal case, what is the point he went to the board to ask for resignation. That step is a bit of mystery. Seems no choice but straight to police?

[Bryce Lee]

The wording of said newspaper journal doth not confuse me any more than the general parallels brought forth by those who seem to understand
the subject at hand.

May I suggestion those who wish to go out on a limb regarding conifers perhaps could review in their mind's eye the subject being needled by the fir (sic) of said vertical structure.
Surely the root of this problem kind sir
is not the conifer but perhaps not seeing the forest for the trees.

[Withheld]

The Olympus scandal has the scent of either a Yakuza payoff or Olympus falling victim to a Yakuza scam. The Japanese press really has not picked up on the story, but the foreign press is all over it. I would be surprised if it dies out quickly.

[Oskar Ojala]

Rather amusing change of opinions in that Journal, oh I wish that forum postings now would retain the same level of literary prowess so that flamewar exchanges would be more interesting.

I have to point out, though, that his name seems to be "Baynham Jones" instead of "Raynham".

[David H.]

Unfortunately, the Olympus scandal will probably disappear from the foreign press soon. And unfortunately, that likely means the Japanese press happily will let it slip under the radar if Japanese authorities take no action.

Olympus was recently slapped down by the Tokyo High Court for harassing another whistleblower,http://bit.ly/qH3yUC and apparently has learned nothing. Why should they? There was no penalty.

Some reports have mentioned the possibility of "anti-social" elements being involved. This likely means the yakuza which has become very sophisticated in financial crimes. The yakuza aren't the honorable robin-hood types of movies and myths, but thugs, killers, drug-pushers, child pornographers, and more who will do anything to make money. If nothing else, this possibility to be thoroughly investigated.

It is amazing, that chairman Kikukawa, in the standard pattern of corporations here to deny, lie, then attack, initially made untrue statements about the amount of money involved, and claimed it was all just an error by himself. Even if his statement were true, it meant an incompetent fired the CEO, and took over the leadership. Olympus at best, is being led by a self-confessed incompetent.

Yes, something strongly smells here, but I fear it will never come out. Glad I held no Olympus stock.

Let's see if Olympus has the guts to sue as it has threatened.

[richardplondon]

Baynham Jones's letter reads as disingenuousness brought to a high art - something I am sad to see, all too often, dismissed as insincerity or sarcasm. He clearly had known exactly what he was being called, just as the quaint "parallelogram" insult would have been understood as intended - anatomically.

Unless we are satisfied with entirely reasonable and polite humour - mere whimsy - wit needs to have a point... which means, to be pointed... which means, for someone to get punctured.

[jeff doty]

Andrew, I believe you're right about the Tom Noddy reference. Of course, when you say the name today, everyone thinks of "the bubble guy" who does all kindd of tricks with soap bubbles. But in the US Civil War era, that phrase was very much in the lexicon.

[erlik]

when you say the name today, everyone thinks of "the bubble guy"

Actually, some of us think of Tolkien's Hobbit, where "tomnoddy" was one of the insults Bilbo shouted to the spiders in the forest.