Federal agents arrested a former bank executive in Los Angeles on Thursday in connection with the accounting scandal that erupted last year at Olympus, the Japanese camera and medical equipment maker.
Prosecutors in New York alleged that the executive, Chan Ming Fon, received more than $10 million from Olympus for assisting in its accounting fraud.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Mr. Chan, 50, was a citizen of Taiwan residing in Singapore. He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, with a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison. His lawyer was not immediately identifiable.
“As alleged, Chan Ming Fon was handsomely paid to play an international shell game with hundreds of millions of dollars of assets in order to allow Olympus to keep a massive accounting fraud going for years,” said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, in a news release.
The authorities did not identify the financial institutions with which Mr. Chan was affiliated.
In February, the Japanese authorities arrested seven people in relation to the accounting missteps at Olympus, including Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the company’s former chairman. Mr. Chan was not among those seven.
The company has admitted that executives set up a scheme to cover up $1.7 billion of losses. The illicit maneuvers came to light after Olympus fired Michael C. Woodford, its British chief executive, in October 2011. Soon after, Mr. Woodford alleged accounting misdeeds at Olympus.
The Olympus scandal rocked the Japanese corporate sector. The case is being watched closely to gauge how serious Japanese authorities will be in their pursuit of white-collar crime. Under Japanese laws, the men arrested in February could each serve up to 10 years if found guilty.
U.S. Makes Arrest in Olympus Accounting Scandal
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U.S. Makes Arrest in Olympus Accounting Scandal
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U.S. Makes Arrest in Olympus Accounting Scandal
