the japanese Toshiba has been involved in a new scandalrelated to improper expenses, and that se has taken its COO ahead. Goro Yanase, who until a few days ago held said position in the group, has submitted his resignation. According to Toshina, Yanase has resigned for making a inappropriate use of leisure-related expenses in 2019, when he was a manager in one of the group’s divisions.
According to the Financial Times, the manager submitted his resignation after several auditors, who were examining the group’s accounts, discovered that he had repeatedly reported leisure-related expenses without disclosing all the details of them. Specifically, it had spent the expenses without communicating the names of the people who participated in the leisure events, which is a violation of the company’s rules. Yanase spent these expenses in 2019, before being named Toshiba’s COO, although he was a member of its board of directors.
Yanase started working at Toshiba more than 30 years ago: in 1991. Since then, he has climbed the ranks within the group until he became COO. But his resignation is not the only one that has occurred in the Toshiba board of directors in recent years. In 2021, another of its top managers, Nobuaki Kurumatani, resigned shortly after an investigation was opened, at the initiative of shareholders, of Toshiba’s management practices.
At the end of 2021, Toshiba said it would undertake a restructuring, announcing a plan to create separate subsidiaries with its power infrastructure and computing device areas. In March 2022, the group’s CEO, Satoshi Tsunakawa, resigned. And this week it has been made public that Toshiba is probably going to undertake another restructuring. This has been confirmed by the President of Toshiba, Akihiro Watanabe.
In addition, Toshiba is evaluating a purchase proposal made by a group led by a Japanese venture capital investment firm, JIP (Japan Industrial Partners). The group, on the other hand, has cut its annual revenue estimate after a profit decline in the third quarter of its fiscal year. The company, which according to Reuters has suffered from low demand for hard drives from its data center customers, has said its operating profit fell 88% to $40.4 billion, well below expectations. .
So far, Toshiba has not commented on the JIP proposal, but the member of its board of directors Akihiro Watanabe has stated that it wasIt is important to come to a conclusion about the company’s strategic alternatives as soon as possible, and start working towards a new scenario.«. The group sent its formal proposal a few days ago, after several sources ensured that investors had secured the amount offered in the form of a loan commitment.
