Tamron CEO resigns over alleged use of company funds as personal piggy bank

Tamron President & CEO, Shiro Ajisaka has resigned from the company amidst investigations over using company money for personal gain. It was first reported by Asobinet, which described it as a “misappropriation of expenses”.

In short, he was alleged to be passing off personal expenses as business expenses. This was revealed by a whistleblower at the company, prompting an investigation. This investigation revealed it had been going on for at least five years.

A Google-translated copy of the complete announcement is below, declaring that Mr Ajisaka has resigned and that Shogo Sakuraba will take his place as president and CEO. But here’s a brief summary of the highlights.

It seems that he’d taken a woman out to dinner on July 9th 2023 and billed his personal time to company expenses. A whistleblower brought this to the attention of the company, who promptly started an investigation.

The investigation revealed that Mr Ajisaka had been doing this “multiple times a month for at least the last five years” (Google-translated quote). As a result, Mr Ajisaka asked to resign, and the company accepted.

If you want to see the original announcement, it’s available here on the Tamron website.

The investigation is still ongoing, and Tamron says they will fully comply and cooperate with it. They also say that any new revelations uncovered during the investigation will also be publicly announced.

Mr Ajisaka’s resignation has prompted the company to select a new President and CEO. They’ve chosen Tamron veteran Shogo Sakuraba, who joined the company in 1981. He was promoted to his first executive position in 2005 as General Manager of Optical Development. He has been Executive Vice President since 2016.

[via Asobinet]