Ousted Olympus CEO Wants Meeting with Probe Panel

Olympus Corp's ousted CEO Michael Woodford said Wednesday he wants to meet a third-party panel probing past M&A deals at the endoscope maker after the head of the investigative group earlier said it would seek a hearing with him.

Woodford, however, said he would not travel to Japan and offered instead to meet the group of five lawyers and an accountant in New York, London or Singapore.

I would very much want to speak to them, absolutely, Woodford told Reuters in a telephone interview.

I think there are security issues in relation to Japan, he added.

Woodford also said he would be willing to return as CEO to the Japanese company if shareholders wished it, but on condition the company first fired the existing board, asked forensic accountants to pore over the firms books and conducted an impairment test on the company's assets.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Joseph Radford)