An executive at Sanrio, the company behind globally beloved characters such as Hello Kitty and Kuromi, has been suspended after it came to light he might have received off-the-books compensation from a subsidiary totaling several hundred million yen, the company announced on Thursday.
Kiyoshi Saito, 59, is believed to have received compensation from a U.S. subsidiary of the group that he was in charge of, on top of his executive salary, according to media reports. He had been in charge of a subsidiary company that worked on the licensing of characters like Hello Kitty in the U.S.
Over the course of several years, he is believed to have received a total of several hundred million yen from that subsidiary, the company said.
The issue came to light after Sanrio was alerted to Saito¡¯s conduct by an internal whistleblower, prompting it to launch an internal investigation. The company said it has begun further investigations into the matter with the support of a third-party organization.
Saito has been suspended from all duties following the accusation and is set to step down as director in June at the company¡¯s shareholder meeting.
¡°We deeply regret that such an incident has occurred, and we sincerely apologize to our shareholders, investors and business partners for the inconvenience and concern caused by this,¡± the company said in a statement.
Any new findings pertaining to the case, as well as measures to prevent similar incidents from happening with their subsidiary companies, will be announced going forward, the company added.
Established in 1960, Sanrio has seen widespread global popularity in recent years, especially through licensing businesses. According to the company¡¯s most recent numbers, North America accounted for ?18.8 billion in sales between April and December of last year.
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