After reading Case 3-7: Olympus, post your answers to the following questions in the second Chapter 3
discussion forum. Be sure to support and explain your answers.
QUESTIONS:
- Does it seem reasonable that Olympus engaged in an accounting fraud for so long and the auditors did
not detect it? Were the transactions in question and accounting for them something that should have been
detected earlier through proper accounting procedures? Explain.
- What caused the failure of the auditors to act on the fraud? Explain.
- Evaluate the corporate culture at Olympus, including corporate governance. What were the
shortcomings? What do you think caused them?
- Do you believe Michael Woodford did the right thing by blowing the whistle on accounting irregularities?
Were there other options open to him? Explain.
- Once Michael Woodford was fired, could he have made a whistleblower's claim with the SEC under
Dodd-Frank? Why or why not?
Sample Solution