Nippon Scam

Nippon Ham, meat packager and owner of the baseball team the Nippon Ham Fighters, is in the news this week for scamming the government. They bought 5 tons of cheap, imported beef and passed it off as domestic during the mad cow beef buyback program.

So what's their penalty? They've announced that the founder/chairman & his son, the company president, will be demoted to "honorary chairman" and "senior managing director" and will not receive any pay until the business situation improves (meat sales are way down after the mad cow outbreak). Three offices will be closed and the company is setting up an auditing department.

But there seem to be no outside sanctions. The Agriculture Ministry is going to examine the Nippon Ham offices now that the company has admitted its fraud. I wonder what that examination will yield. Probably nothing.