奧林巴斯的中國代理人 不尋常的報酬

For its help with the fire-safety problem, Anyuan requested an unusual form of payment.

安遠同意幫忙解決防火安全問題，並要求奧林巴斯以一種不尋常的方式支付報酬。

In October 2011, Olympus hired an Anyuan-affiliated company as a contractor at the factory, according to multiple Olympus documents. The affiliate’s official job was to to provide catering, cleaning and security services to the employee cafeteria. But the affiliate, called An Ping Tai, was established just three days before it took on the contract, and it listed a nonexistent office as its address, the internal inquiry found. The affiliate appeared to exist only on paper.

奧林巴斯的多份文件顯示，2011年10月，安遠的一家附屬公司受僱成爲奧林巴斯工廠的承包商。至於該附屬公司的職責，公開說法是爲奧林巴斯員工食堂提供餐飲、保潔和安保服務。但這家名叫安平泰（音）的附屬公司是在合同簽訂三天前剛剛成立的，而且奧林巴斯內部調查發現，它將一個並不存在的辦公室登記爲自己的辦公地址。它似乎只存在於紙面上。

“An Ping Tai seems to be a shell company without substantial operations,” lawyers at a Western law firm said in a confidential report prepared for Olympus in 2014, before the company decided to open a formal inquiry.

“安平泰看來是一家空殼公司，並未實際運營，”奧林巴斯決定展開正式調查前，一家西方律所的律師在2014年爲其準備的一份祕密報告裏說。

According to the internal investigation, Olympus paid the affiliate at least 1.2 million renminbi, or about $180,000, in several upfront payments, followed by unspecified monthly service fees and other compensation. Some of the money was drawn from what the inquiry called a “slush fund” that was hidden from Olympus’s official accounts.

內部調查顯示，奧林巴斯向安平泰支付過幾筆預付款，總金額至少爲120萬元，約合18萬美元，隨後每月都向其支付名目含混的服務費和其他補貼。有些錢來自調查人員口中的“行賄基金”——該基金不在奧林巴斯的官方戶頭之列。

Olympus made other off-the-books payments to Anyuan, the internal inquiry found. In 2014, managers in Shenzhen diverted to An Ping Tai rent money that Olympus had collected from employees who lived in company dormitories. The managers then “covered up” the payments by describing them in financial reports as maintenance fees, the inquiry found.

內部調查發現，奧林巴斯還向安遠支付過沒被財務部門登記在冊的其他款項。2014年，深圳的經理把他們從住在公司宿舍的員工那裏收上來的租金劃到了安平泰賬上，隨後在財務報告中遮遮掩掩，將這筆支出描述爲維修費。

The $694 Million Discrepancy

高達6.94億美元的差額

The customs dispute at Olympus stretched back to 2006, when inspectors in Shenzhen found discrepancies with the factory’s inventory records, according to the internal inquiry and managers’ memos reviewed by The Times.

奧林巴斯和海關的那起糾紛可以追溯到2006年，內部調查及《時報》查閱的經理備忘錄顯示，那一年，深圳海關的檢查人員發現該工廠的庫存記錄存在矛盾之處。

Foreign companies in the city’s special manufacturing zone are allowed to import duty-free raw materials on the condition that the products they assemble there are exported to other countries. They must not be sold in China, where they would compete unfairly with local goods.

深圳經濟特區裏的外國企業可以進口免稅原材料，前提條件是把在特區組裝的產品出口到其他國家。這些產品不得在中國境內銷售，否則就會讓當地產品面臨不公平競爭。

The customs inspectors discovered that the volume of materials that Olympus was importing into the zone did not match the finished components that it was shipping out. Such discrepancies can indicate that a company is violating the no-selling-in-China rule.

深圳海關的檢察人員發現，奧林巴斯進口到特區的原材料數量，與其運往國外的成品組件數量不匹配。出現這種差異，說明一家公司可能正在違反不得在中國境內銷售相關產品的規定。

The value of the discrepancy, $694 million, was so large that Olympus said it could only be explained by data-entry error. By way of comparison, Olympus sold only about $600 million worth of digital cameras worldwide last year. The internal inquiry blamed the problem on “simple operational mistakes” by workers logging inventory in record-keeping software.

兩者之間的差額爲6.94億美元，這一金額是如此巨大，以至於奧林巴斯方面稱，唯一可能的解釋就是數據錄入錯誤。相比之下，去年奧林巴斯數碼相機的全球銷售額爲6億美元。內部調查組將問題歸咎爲工人把庫存數據錄入記錄軟件時犯下的“簡單的操作性錯誤”。

The customs authorities were unpersuaded.

海關當局並不認可這種說法。

After years of back-and-forth with Olympus, officials threatened to levy at least 60 million renminbi, or $9.2 million, in fines and unpaid import tariffs, according the Olympus documents. In one memo, managers in Shenzhen said the fine could end up being 40 times as large, though the Western law firm’s report questioned the legal basis for that estimate in its 2014 report.

奧林巴斯的文件顯示，海關官員在和該公司反覆交涉數年之後，揚言至少要讓其繳納罰金並補繳關稅共計6000萬人民幣，約合920萬美元。一份備忘錄顯示，深圳的經理稱，罰金總額最終可能會是這個數字的40倍，不過，前文提到的西方律所的報告對這種估算的法律基礎提出了質疑。

Customs authorities in Shenzhen declined to comment. The General Administration of Customs in Beijing, which oversees customs affairs nationally, said it did not comment on investigations.

深圳海關當局拒絕置評。位於北京、負責監管全國海關事務的海關總署稱其不對調查發表評論。

Managers also suggested in the memo that Olympus could lose its duty-free trading privileges in Shenzhen, a blow that would add costs to the already unprofitable camera business. Global digital camera sales have plunged by half in the last decade, hurt by the spread of camera-equipped smartphones.

備忘錄顯示，經理們還提到，奧林巴斯或將喪失在深圳享有的免稅貿易特權，如何真是這樣，便會拉高成本，讓原本就無利可圖的相機業務遭受沉重打擊。

Olympus employees had previously tried to curry favor with Chinese officials, the inquiry’s report suggested. Investigators found a proposal by a Chinese employee at the plant dated August 2011 to offer cash and cameras worth 20,000 renminbi, or about $3,000, to the head of the customs office’s antismuggling department. The report does not make clear if the plan was approved or carried out.

內部調查報告顯示，奧林巴斯的僱員此前曾試圖巴結中國官員。調查人員發現，工廠的一名中國僱員在一份所注日期爲2011年8月的建議書中提出，向深圳海關緝私部門負責人贈送總價值爲2萬人民幣，約合3000美元的現金和相機。報告並未明示該計劃是否得到了批准或執行。

Anyuan proposed a more decisive intervention.

安遠提出進行更有效的干預。

The company told Olympus that it could resolve the problem quickly and relatively cheaply, the Shenzhen managers reported in mid-2013. Anyuan, they said, estimated it would cost Olympus half the amount that the customs authorities were threatening to impose in penalties.

深圳的經理在2013年年中的報告裏稱，安遠告訴奧林巴斯，它能幫忙以相對低廉的成本快速處理這件事。經理們稱，安遠預計，奧林巴斯的花費會是海關當局揚言收取的罰金數額的一半。

It was still a significant payment — equivalent to several million dollars. One manager in Shenzhen, the head of the accounting department at the factory, told the company inquiry that he suspected Anyuan would use part of the money to bribe Chinese officials. Discussions with Anyuan were handled by a Chinese Olympus employee, according to the inquiry.

這仍然是一筆非常大的支出——相當於好幾百萬美元。深圳的一位經理——奧林巴斯工廠的會計部門負責人——告訴內部調查人員，他懷疑安遠會用其中一部分資金賄賂中國官員。調查顯示，負責與安遠交涉的是奧林巴斯的一名中國僱員。

“My interpretation at the time, and still a possible interpretation now,” the accounting manager is quoted in the inquiry’s report as saying, was that the Chinese employee “was negotiating to deliver 100 million to 140 million renminbi in bribes to the government through Anyuan.”

“按我當時的理解，或許也是現在的理解，”內部調查報告中引用會計部經理的原話稱，該中國僱員“和安遠交涉的內容是，通過安遠把1億到1.4億元賄金送到政府官員手中。”

The confidential inquiry said there was no documentary evidence to prove the manager’s claim. Other managers told investigators they had no reason to think Anyuan was bribing Chinese officials.

祕密調查組稱，沒有任何書面憑據能夠證明會計部經理的說辭。其他經理告訴調查人員，他們沒理由認爲安遠要賄賂中國官員。

Once again, the plan involved an unorthodox form of payment.

不過，該計劃同樣涉及不尋常的付款方式。

Olympus, the documents show, proposed a real estate transaction. Olympus would sell two dormitory buildings in Shenzhen to the Anyuan affiliate. The sale price would be set well below the buildings’ market value, according to the confidential report from the Western law firm. The deal would reward Anyuan, but more discreetly than a cash payment.

文件顯示，奧林巴斯提議進行一項房地產交易。奧林巴斯可以把它在深圳的兩棟宿舍樓賣給安遠的附屬公司。前述西方律所的祕密報告顯示，售價會遠遠低於市場價。通過這樣的交易既能把報酬支付給安遠，又比現金付款更加隱蔽。

Senior Olympus executives would have to sign off, and they were nervous. The reports and memos showed a debate ensued between Tokyo executives and the Asia-Pacific office, based in Hong Kong, over who would bear responsibility for the decision. Executives knew about the bribery accusations against Mr. Chen and were concerned about legal risks, according to the documents.

這項交易必須獲得奧林巴斯高管的批准，他們爲此非常焦慮。相關報告和備忘錄顯示，東京的高管和位於香港的亞太區辦公室之間繼而有過一場討論，主題是誰將爲這一決定負責。文件稱，高管們知道陳族遠曾被指行賄，擔心存在法律風險。

At one point, the Olympus president, Hiroyuki Sasa; chairman, Yasuyuki Kimoto, who retired last year; and two other board members in Tokyo told subordinates in Hong Kong and Shenzhen to move forward with the real estate deal, according to the report by the Western law firm. Managers in Shenzhen were instructed “not to leave any written evidence of the purpose behind the transaction,” the law firm found. Email memos on the matter were labeled “top secret.”

前述西方律所的報告顯示，奧林巴斯總裁笹宏行(Hiroyuki Sasa) 、董事長木本泰行（Yasuyuki Kimoto，已於去年退休）以及身在東京的另外兩名董事，曾要求香港和深圳的下屬推進這項房地產交易。該律所發現，深圳的經理得到的指令是“不要留下與交易背後的目的相關的任何書面證據”。提到此事的電郵備忘錄都被加上了“絕密”標籤。

There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. According to the inquiry, Olympus balked at the dormitory sale at the last minute, judging it too risky. But managers in Shenzhen had already signed a deal, which Anyuan claimed contained clauses promising the sale.

關於接下來發生的事情，存在相互矛盾的說法。調查組稱，奧林巴斯在最後一刻取消了出售宿舍樓的交易，因爲覺得風險太大。但深圳的經理已經簽署了一份協議，安遠稱協議中包含承諾出售宿舍樓的條款。

In the end, Olympus paid Anyuan 24 million renminbi, or $3.7 million, in cash, through its affiliate An Ping Tai, according the inquiry. Olympus declined to comment on details of its arrangement with Anyuan, beyond saying it was “one of many contractual relationships” it maintained in the normal course of its business.

調查顯示，奧林巴斯最終通過安平泰向安遠支付了2400萬人民幣現金，約合370萬美元現金。奧林巴斯拒絕就它和安遠之間的協議置評，僅稱其爲“許多種合同關係中的一種”，沒有超出正常的業務範疇。

In August 2014, eight months after its managers signed the deal with Anyuan, Olympus was informed that it would not be fined or otherwise punished for the inventory-recording discrepancy, according to the inquiry.

內部調查顯示，在其經理與安遠簽訂協議八個月之後，奧林巴斯於2014年8月收到通知，它不會因爲庫存記錄中存在的相互矛盾之處被處以罰款，也不會受到其他形式的處罰。

“In the end, a fine that had been estimated at least 60 million renminbi was not levied at all,” the inquiry found.

調查人員發現，“最終，公司並未收到一筆據估計至少爲6000萬人民幣的罰單。”