
Exposure
Inside the Olympus Scandal: How I Went from CEO to Whistleblower
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $25.78
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Michael Woodford
-
By:
-
Michael Woodford
About this listen
When Michael Woodford was made president of Olympus - the company to which he had dedicated thirty years of his career - he became the first Westerner ever to climb the ranks of one of Japan’s corporate giants. Some wondered at the appointment - how could a gaijin who didn’t even speak Japanese understand how to run a Japanese company? But within months Woodford had gained the confidence of most of his colleagues and shareholders. Unfortunately, soon after, his dream job turned into a nightmare.
The trouble began when Woodford learned about a series of bizarre mergers and aquisitions deals totaling $1.7 billion - a scandal that threatened to bring down the entire company if exposed. He turned to his fellow executives - including the chairman who had promoted him Tsuyoshi Kikukawa - for answers. But instead of being heralded as a hero for trying to save the company, Woodford was met with vague responses and hostility - a clear sign of a cover up. Undeterred, he demanded to be made CEO so he could have more leverage with his board and continue to search for the truth. Then, just weeks after being granted the top title, he was fired in a boardroom coup that shocked Japan and the business world at large.
Worried his former bosses might try to silence him, Woodford immediately fled the country in fear of his life and went straight to the press - making him the first CEO of a global multinational to blow the whistle on his own company.
The result is a deeply personal memoir that reads like a thriller narrative. As Woodford puts it, “I thought I was going to run a health-care and consumer electronics company, but found I had walked into a John Grisham novel.”
©2012 Michael Woodford (P)2013 Gildan Media LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
Boundless
- The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn
- By: Nick Kostov, Sean McLain
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Ghosn always wanted more. Born in the Amazon, raised by a well-off—if scandalized—family in Beirut, and educated in Paris, Ghosn rose to prominence at Michelin in the United States, Renault in France, and Nissan in Japan. Along the way he earned monikers of Le Cost Killer, for his incisive business savvy, and Mr. 7-Eleven, for the hours he devoted to his work.
-
-
Better than Broken Alliance
- By Amazon Customer on 03-08-23
By: Nick Kostov, and others
-
Tracers in the Dark
- The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
- By: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.
-
-
Could not put this down
- By Mike Reaves on 01-28-23
By: Andy Greenberg
-
The Lazarus Heist
- From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea's Global Cyber War
- By: Geoff White
- Narrated by: Geoff White
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the Lazarus Group, a shadowy cabal of hackers accused of working on behalf of the North Korean state. It's claimed that they form one of the most dangerous criminal enterprises on the planet, having stolen more than $1bn in an international crime spree. Their targets allegedly include central banks, Hollywood film studios and even the British National Health Service. North Korea denies the allegations, saying the accusations are American attempts to tarnish its image.
-
-
Propagandistic tone
- By Philippe Delteil on 04-17-23
By: Geoff White
-
Tokyo Vice
- An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
- By: Jake Adelstein
- Narrated by: Jake Adelstein
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club: a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.
-
-
Memoir, crime story and travelogue in one package
- By Steven on 02-07-10
By: Jake Adelstein
-
Den of Thieves
- By: James B. Stewart
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the biggest names on Wall Street - Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine - created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions - until a team of downtrodden detectives triumphed over some of America's most expensive lawyers to bring this powerful quartet to justice.
-
-
Awesome book
- By Lars Tackmann on 10-23-17
By: James B. Stewart
-
Money Men
- A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
- By: Dan McCrum
- Narrated by: Dan McCrum
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When investigative journalist Dan McCrum first came across Wirecard, the hot new tech company that looked poised to challenge Silicon Valley, it all looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up all over the world, and they were reporting runaway growth. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market. As McCrum began to dig deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more compelling than he could have imagined.
-
-
Interesting book but…
- By Rock Climber on 06-11-23
By: Dan McCrum
-
Boundless
- The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn
- By: Nick Kostov, Sean McLain
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Ghosn always wanted more. Born in the Amazon, raised by a well-off—if scandalized—family in Beirut, and educated in Paris, Ghosn rose to prominence at Michelin in the United States, Renault in France, and Nissan in Japan. Along the way he earned monikers of Le Cost Killer, for his incisive business savvy, and Mr. 7-Eleven, for the hours he devoted to his work.
-
-
Better than Broken Alliance
- By Amazon Customer on 03-08-23
By: Nick Kostov, and others
-
Tracers in the Dark
- The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
- By: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.
-
-
Could not put this down
- By Mike Reaves on 01-28-23
By: Andy Greenberg
-
The Lazarus Heist
- From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea's Global Cyber War
- By: Geoff White
- Narrated by: Geoff White
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet the Lazarus Group, a shadowy cabal of hackers accused of working on behalf of the North Korean state. It's claimed that they form one of the most dangerous criminal enterprises on the planet, having stolen more than $1bn in an international crime spree. Their targets allegedly include central banks, Hollywood film studios and even the British National Health Service. North Korea denies the allegations, saying the accusations are American attempts to tarnish its image.
-
-
Propagandistic tone
- By Philippe Delteil on 04-17-23
By: Geoff White
-
Tokyo Vice
- An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
- By: Jake Adelstein
- Narrated by: Jake Adelstein
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police press club: a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up.
-
-
Memoir, crime story and travelogue in one package
- By Steven on 02-07-10
By: Jake Adelstein
-
Den of Thieves
- By: James B. Stewart
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the biggest names on Wall Street - Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine - created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions - until a team of downtrodden detectives triumphed over some of America's most expensive lawyers to bring this powerful quartet to justice.
-
-
Awesome book
- By Lars Tackmann on 10-23-17
By: James B. Stewart
-
Money Men
- A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
- By: Dan McCrum
- Narrated by: Dan McCrum
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When investigative journalist Dan McCrum first came across Wirecard, the hot new tech company that looked poised to challenge Silicon Valley, it all looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up all over the world, and they were reporting runaway growth. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market. As McCrum began to dig deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more compelling than he could have imagined.
-
-
Interesting book but…
- By Rock Climber on 06-11-23
By: Dan McCrum
-
Billion Dollar Whale
- By: Bradley Hope, Tom Wright
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now a number-one international best seller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude—one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system.
-
-
Couldn’t stop listening!
- By N Lane on 10-05-18
By: Bradley Hope, and others
-
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
-
-
A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
-
The Key Man
- The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale
- By: Simon Clark, Will Louch
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arif Naqvi was charismatic, inspiring, and self-made—all the qualities of a successful business leader. The founder of Abraaj, a Dubai-based private-equity firm, Naqvi was the Key Man to the global elite searching for impact investments to make money and do good. In 2018, Simon Clark and Will Louch were contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who said Naqvi had swindled investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and offered bribes to sustain his billionaire lifestyle. In April 2019—months after their exposé broke—Naqvi was arrested on charges of fraud and racketeering.
-
-
A great take on one of the greatest swindleds
- By Amer on 05-05-23
By: Simon Clark, and others
-
Barbarians at the Gate
- The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- By: Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A number-one New York Times best seller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date 20 years after the famed deal.
-
-
Good book but too dense
- By Andrew M. on 08-01-21
By: Bryan Burrough, and others
-
The Missing Cryptoqueen
- The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It
- By: Jamie Bartlett
- Narrated by: Jamie Bartlett
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, on stage at Wembley Arena, Dr. Ruja Ignatova promised her followers a financial revolution. The future, she said, belonged to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. And the Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptoqueen vowed that she had invented the Bitcoin Killer. OneCoin would not only earn its investors untold fortunes; it would change the world. By March 2017, more than $4 billion had been invested in OneCoin in countries all around the world. But by October 2017, Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary cryptocurrency was not all it seemed.
-
-
Amazing but could use some better editing
- By Rock Climber on 02-15-23
By: Jamie Bartlett
-
Bad Blood
- Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- By: John Carreyrou
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion.
-
-
Extreme retaliation against former employees
- By LEE on 05-29-18
By: John Carreyrou
-
Red Notice
- A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Red Notice is a searing expose of the wholesale whitewash by Russian authorities of Magnitsky's imprisonment and murder, slicing deep into the shadowy heart of the Kremlin to uncover its sordid truths.
-
-
This is an absolute "YES" as your next read/listen
- By William on 02-07-15
By: Bill Browder
-
Freezing Order
- A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
-
-
Red Notice Part II —- The Empire Struck Out
- By R. Alembik on 04-16-22
By: Bill Browder
-
The Snowball
- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- By: Alice Schroeder
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 36 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as "The Oracle of Omaha."
-
-
2,220 well-invested minutes!
- By BogKid on 01-07-09
By: Alice Schroeder
-
Too Big to Fail
- The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves
- By: Andrew Ross Sorkin
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 21 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A real-life thriller about the most tumultuous period in America's financial history by an acclaimed New York Times reporter. Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true, behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami.
-
-
Best Book About Meltdown
- By Chuck on 12-08-09
-
Black Edge
- Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
- By: Sheelah Kolhatkar
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven A. Cohen changed Wall Street. He and his fellow pioneers of the hedge fund industry didn’t lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not.
-
-
Amazing book about trading that feels like an adventure novel
- By Tim S on 05-24-18
-
Conspiracy of Fools
- A True Story
- By: Kurt Eichenwald
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 30 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Say the name 'Enron' and most people believe they've heard all about the story that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever. But in the hands of Kurt Eichenwald, the players we think we know and the business practices we think have been exposed are transformed into entirely new, and entirely gripping, material.
-
-
Great Story
- By Adam M Pokorski on 06-06-06
By: Kurt Eichenwald
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Exposure
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Happy Mountain
- 10-21-21
Starts off great, then gets stupid
The author writes extremely well and he narrates even better so that kept my attention for a long time. But then about half way through, the book goes from being a suspenseful, financial thriller that hints at Japenese Mafia involvement, to just a whiny narrative from a company president that got fired for exposing bad accounting practices that illegally covered company losses. Yes, that's bad but this man loves to tell the reader (listener) over and over and over that he had integrity and that he won so many accolades for exposing such bad things. After he is fired, all he talks about is giving this interview or that interview and in which fancy hotel he stayed. I'm not sure that he actually is considered a whistleblower since he claims that he found out about the company's bad activities in an article that he read. All he did was demand answers from the board and got fired. Of course then he went on his media blitz to save...not the company...but his name. His media blitz resulted in the company losing 75-80% of its stock value. It seems to me that he caused a lot of people to lose their jobs (not just the board) and caused a lot of people to lose a lot of money. I have no sympathy for him and the book is boring after about Chapter 4. Oh, and there isn't any Mafia involvement or any credible threat to his life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful