Toshiba president, top executives, quit over $1.2 bn scandal

Tokyo

The president of Toshiba and seven other executives resigned Tuesday over a $1.2 billion accounting scandal blamed on their overzealous pursuit of profit that has battered one of Japan's best-known firms.

Hisao Tanaka and vice chairman Norio Sasaki also a former president were the most senior to step down after an independent report found top management complicit in a years-long scheme to pad profits.

In a stinging indictment, the report by a company-hired panel said managers were involved in "systematically" inflating profits over several years, in one of the most damaging accounting scandals to hit Japan in recent years.

"There has been inappropriate accounting going on for a long time, and we deeply apologise for causing this serious trouble for shareholders and other stakeholders," said a company statement. 

At a packed press briefing, Tanaka offered a "heartfelt apology" as he bowed deeply in a show of contrition."This is the worst damage for our brand in its 140-year history," he said.

But the 64-year-old company veteran denied ordering staff to doctor Toshiba's books."I didn't order inappropriate accounting," he said.

Sasaki, 66, served as Toshiba president between June 2009 and June 2013, covering most of the period during which profits were inflated. He did not appear before the media on Tuesday.

Chairman Masashi Muromachi is taking over as interim president. The embarrassing findings come less than two months after Japan adopted a long-awaited corporate governance code aimed at improving firms' transparency.