( Financial Times ) -- Three former Olympus executives pleaded guilty on Tuesday to filing false financial reports in connection with a $ 1.7bn accounting fraud at the Japanese camera company . In the first court proceedings arising from the case , Tsuyoshi Kikukawa , who ran Olympus for a decade as president and later chairman , said he was to blame for the long-running scheme to hide lossmaking investments . `` As the representative director and president , I bear full responsibility , '' he said . Two of Mr Kikukawa 's top lieutenants , Hisashi Mori and Hideo Yamada , also pleaded guilty . Olympus has admitted that managers secretly moved more than Y100bn ( $ 1.3bn ) of securities-related investment losses off its books beginning in the 1990s , then used acquisitions as cover to square the hidden accounts . Including money that outside financiers kept in return for helping arrange the deception , roughly Y135bn was `` appropriated to maintain the scheme '' , a civil investigation commissioned by the company concluded in December . Four financial advisers have also been charged with violating securities laws in the affair , and are to be tried separately from the Olympus executives . In theory , the seven men could face to up to 10 years in prison , although it is common in Japan for white-collar criminals to avoid jail with suspended sentences or fines . © The Financial Times Limited 2012 .
Three former Olympus executives pleaded guilty on Tuesday to filing false financial reports . The three men were charged with conspiracy and making a fraudulent statement in connection with the company's accounting for its sales of digital cameras and other products that it sold overseas. Ex-president : `` As the representative director and president , I bear full responsibility ''