Are ATLUS in deep shit?

Today on Yamamoto Ichiro’s (CEO of data analysis company, Irregulars and Partners) blog – some interesting details have surfaced surrounding one of my favourite companies – Atlus – or rather their parent company Index – who are under investigation for fraud.

 

 

The result’s of which could prove potentially devastating for the company who brought gamer’s some of the finest JRPGs ever made.

 

Are Atlus in Deep Shit?

 

So taking it from the top? Index are the focus of a criminal investigation. A lot of people have been talking about the hedge fund from Yamato Fumiaki at Nexon, Shingo Akigusa at Index and the Incubator Bank of Japan and NIS Group. There was a rumour of ‘window dressing’ of games companies – inflating sales by moving money round and around companies – so that Index could maintain an illusion of a stable financial position.

 

Basically, there’s been some rather ‘interesting’ trade going on.

 

The result? According to an article by NHK this morning (kinda like Japan’s BBC) the police have raided Index Japan’s offices as well as individual employees houses.

 

Yamamoto contacted Index to find out what was going on – but, unsurprisingly at this stage, nobody seems to know anything. Yamamoto believes that someone was controlling the funding in order to do this ‘window dressing’ on a personal level rather than on a company-wide level…

 

Shocking news for sure, but how unusual it?

 

Rumour has it,  such practices are not as rare as you’d think. With old colleagues from companies remaining in contact long after they have gone their separate ways, so that they may collude and profit from each other’s new enterprises.

 

When money is being moved from company to company – it is usually with the intention of manipulating of stock price. The question is, when this is creamed off the top – where does that money go?

 

It’s safe to assume nowhere legitimate.

 

SOURCE:   Kirik Tea Nifty.com

 

ILJG runs the I Love Japanese Games Facebook Page.
His views are not necessarily those held by Rice Digital or its partners.

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