Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- When CEO-turned-whistleblower Michael Woodford exposed a $ 1.7 billion cover-up of losses at Olympus , he was forced to flee from Japan , fearing for his life , as the scandal sent shockwaves through the country 's tight-knit corporate world . The 52-year-old Briton had barely settled in to his new role as the company 's first foreign chief executive when he became aware of a potentially explosive magazine article . FACTA , a local Japanese title with only nine staff , had published a detailed expose in July 2011 questioning exorbitant fees it claimed the camera and medical equipment maker had paid consultants for a 2008 acquisition deal . It also questioned extravagant purchase prices of three small companies . `` The company had bought three 'Mickey Mouse companies ' for a billion dollars : a plastic plates company for microwaves , a cosmetics company -- a face cream company -- and a recycling company , but with no turnover , '' Woodford told CNN Tuesday , as his new book about the saga , `` Exposure , '' prepared to hit bookshelves . `` They then paid $ 700 million dollars in fees to somebody , we did n't know who , in the Cayman Islands . I begged and begged and pleaded 'do n't treat me as a gaijin ( foreigner ) , treat me as a colleague who cares about this company . ' But they did n't listen , not one of the 14 ( board members ) , including three non-executive directors . '' Instead Woodford quickly found himself out of a job after he attempted to get some answers from then-Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and former Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori . The board voted unanimously to fire him from the post . Shigeo Abe , publisher of FACTA , gave his own blunt assessment of why Olympus had selected what he called a `` bottom-ranking foreign executive '' from 25 candidates to be CEO in the first place . `` Mr. Kikukawa 's aim was to keep the fraud in secret under the foreign president because Mr. Woodford could not speak and read Japanese , '' he told CNN last year . Woodford refused to go quietly , choosing instead to unleash a firestorm of publicity that would prove costly to the board and company itself . Kikukawa and several other board members were eventually forced to resign , while Olympus shares lost around 80 % of their market value in the first weeks after news of the scandal broke . A special audit of Olympus in December last year , led by a former Japanese Supreme Court judge , published a report that blasted Kikukawa 's controlling style and the company culture that allowed losses to be disguised in dubious fees and overvalued payments for its acquisitions . `` The management was rotten to the core , and infected those around it , '' the report said . The case also raised questions about the level of transparency in Japan Inc. when to comes to business practice generally . In September this year , Kikukawa , Mori and another senior executive , Hideo Yamada , admitted filing false reports and inflating the company 's net worth . The men could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 10 million yen ( $ 128,400 ) , Japanese media reports have said . `` It was an incredible story , '' said Woodford . `` It illustrated the dysfunctionality of corporate Japan and the way the capital markets work . `` A month after I was dismissed , the share price of Olympus had fallen by 81.5 % -- $ 7 billion dollars had been struck off the value of the company , yet the institutional shareholders in Japan would not offer one word of criticism of the incumbent board , or one word for the ex-president in support of him trying to expose this fraud . '' But almost a year after he was forced out of the company he had served since the 1980s , Woodford says no lessons have been learned from the scandal by corporate Japan . `` Nothing has changed , '' he said . `` The ruling party , the DPJ , at the height of this said they were going to put forward a recommendation that one non-executive director should be a minimum requirement under Japanese company law . `` In July of this year , the Ministry of Finance dropped that proposal , so out of the 1,600 companies on the Nikkei , over 1,000 do n't have one outside director . What are they scared of ? What does that tell investors who are looking at Japan ? '' Woodford compared the success of South Korean electronics giant Samsung to that of ailing Japanese rivals such as Sharp , Sony and Panasonic -- all have their debts set at junk status . `` Japan is losing it , '' said Woodford . `` The companies and country ca n't change . They just ca n't change themselves . It 's desperately sad . ''
Michael Woodford fired as Olympus CEO after he exposed a $ 1.7 billion cover-up . Woodford was appointed as first foreign CEO when a local magazine broke news . Olympus shares lost around 80 % of their market value in weeks after . Woodford : Case highlights the dysfunctionality of corporate Japan .