Yakuza

The CEO Olympus Fired for Asking Where the Money Went

When Michael Woodford became Olympus's first non-Japanese CEO in October 2011, he had spent 30 years at the company. Six weeks later he was asking about a $687 million payment to a shell company in the Cayman Islands. Two weeks after that, the board fired him 14-0. He flew straight to the Financial Times.