Olympus: would consider criminal complaints vs execs

Olympus would if necessary consider making criminal complaints against former Chairman and President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and two other senior executives who it believes were responsible for using funds related to acquisitions to hide investment losses, the company's president Shuichi Takayama said on Tuesday.

Takayama also said the company would decide whether other executives should be held responsible after further investigation.

Olympus said earlier on Tuesday it had dismissed Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori and that standing corporate auditor Hideo Yamada had offered to resign in connection with a scandal surrounding the acquisitions.

The company also said it had discovered that funds connected to its acquisition of British medical equipment maker Gyrus and of three domestic firms were used to cover losses on securities investments dating back to the 1990s.

The revelation by the Japanese maker of endoscopes and cameras was the biggest disclosure about the mysterious deals, which are at the centre of a high-profile governance scandal that followed dismissal of its British CEO Michael Woodford. (Reporting by Nathan Layne and Isabel Reynolds; Writing by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Michael Watson)