Toshiba CEO Hisao Tanaka, 15 others resign in $1.2B accounting scandal

TOKYO, July 21 (UPI) -- Toshiba's chief executive officer resigned Tuesday after an independent review found the Japanese technology giant inflated its profits by $1.2 billion in the past six years.

CEO Hisao Tanaka is among 16 board members who are stepping down after the company took responsibility for doctoring the books to show inflated profits in what was called a "systemic" problem.

An independent panel hired by Toshiba said the three most recent chief executives played active roles in the scheme since 2008. The panel said executives put intense pressure on the company's various business units, from personal computers to nuclear reactors, to achieve unrealistic profit targets. Sometimes these goals would be announced shortly before the end of the fiscal quarter or year, putting even more pressure on to cook the books.

"The improper accounting procedures were continuously carried out as a de facto policy of the management," the report said. "And it was impossible for anyone to go against the intention amid Toshiba's corporate culture."

Toshiba, in a written statement, said "the company takes the situation it has caused very seriously and we deeply apologize to our shareholders, investors and all other stakeholders."

In addition to Tanaka, the company's Vice President Norio Sasaki resigned. Both men joined the company in the early 1970s. Sasaki served as Toshiba president between June 2009 and June 2013. Atsutoshi Nishida, an adviser and former chief executive from 2006 to 2009, also resigned.