A SOUTHEND businessman has had his pride restored after he was forced to leave the helm of one of the world’s biggest firms.

In the wake of losing his position as president and chief executive of Olympus, the Japanese camera maker, Michael Woodford, claimed he had been axed for asking tough questions about £1billion losses.

Yesterday he appeared to be vindicated after Olympus admitted it had entered inflated prices for acquisitions into its balance books to cover up losses stretching back to the nineties.

After hearing the news, Mr Woodford reportedly said he would be willing to return to Japan to restore the company’s battered reputation, if he had the blessing of shareholders.

He also allegedly called for Olympus’s management board to resign.

Shuichi Takayama, who took over as president late last month, said: “I have no intention to step down at this moment, because my responsibility is to fix this company.”

Mr Woodford had enjoyed barely six months at the top of Olympus before he was fired four weeks ago.

The company’s board members initially accused him of creating rifts with other bosses, but Mr Woodford soon went public with what he claimed was the real story.

He revealed Olympus had paid $687million to a mysterious advisory company in the Cayman Islands. The firm also paid for three expensive acquisitions of Japanese firms, all of which seemed to have little to do with its core business.

Mr Woodford called in the UK’s Serious Fraud Office and the US’s FBI to investigate.

Yesterday, Olympus admitted it had used the payments to cover up unknown losses.

Its shares, which had already lost half their value since Mr Woodford left, fell another 29 per cent, plunging the firm into a crisis situation.

It is not yet clear what impact the revelations could have on Olympus KeyMed, which is wholly owned by Olympus. The company, at which Mr Woodford started his rise to the top of Olympus, employs more than 1,000 people at its base on the Temple Farm industrial estate in Southend.