Bausch & Lomb Japan Chairman Charged With Tax Evasion on $676K in J&J Options

Mitsuo Hirose, the 72-year-old former president of Johnson & Johnson Japan, was charged with tax evasion, according to two Japanese news services. The news is an embarrassment for Bausch & Lomb Japan, which just appointed Hirose as its chairman. Hirose settled the charges, acording to a B&L spokesperson.*

“Mike” Hirose was accused of evaded about 60 million yen ($676,461 million) in taxes due on his stock options. Between 2006 and 2007, Hirose exercised about 160 million yen ($1.8 million) in options from J&J, according to PharmaPro.com:

[He] used accounts at U.S. securities firms for his investment activities related to the stock options and deposited profits from stock sales in overseas accounts.

At the time of his appointment, B&L CEO Gerald Ostroy said:

We look forward to working with Hirose-san, and believe that our customers and partners, as well as everyone at Bausch & Lomb Japan, will benefit from his insights and guidance.

(But not on tax matters, presumably.)

B&L spokesperson Mike McDougall told BNET:

Hirose-san settled this personal matter with Japanese authorities some months ago, which the Asahi Shimbun story failed to report.

And finally: Overseas accounts seem to be a “thing” among allegedly crooked pharma execs. A Novo Nordisk exec was recently charged with stashing profits from insider trading in a Caribbean account.

*Correction: This story was updated to reflect the fact that the charges have been settled.