Tax investigators probing Japanese electronics maker NEC have found that 10 employees placed fake orders and took kickbacks, compounding the problems at a company long dogged by accounting troubles.
The fake orders were worth some 2.2 billion yen (€13.4 million) and the kickbacks amounted to around 500 million yen (€3.1m), NEC said.
The company could face a Nasdaq delisting after the investigation by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau had found employees from five divisions had been involved in receiving kickbacks for placing fake orders to subcontractors.
"It is extremely regrettable that these illegal trades have occurred and we deeply apologise to all the people that have been affected," the company statement said.
The problems would not affect earnings and the company was considering seeking compensation and starting criminal proceedings against the employees, it added.
Last year, NEC rattled investors by restating its earnings three times. The first change was made after it discovered an employee at a subsidiary had inflated sales figures.
NEC, whose businesses include IT systems consulting, then switched from US to less stringent Japanese accounting rules after an independent auditor asked it to document fair pricing of the company's maintenance services.
It later had to correct the report due to human error.
NEC, which recently announced the closure of its plant in Ballivor, Co Meath, is still recalculating earnings for the business year ended March 2006. If the US Securities and Exchange Commission is not satisified with the figures the company could Nasdaq delisting after it twice missed the deadline.
Nasdaq exchange's Hearings Review Council is currently reviewing a decision by its Listing Qualifications Panel that the deadline could not be extended.