Last year, Michael Woodford, Olympus' CEO, blew the whistle on a $1.7 billion cover-up that led to the resignation of the company's president and chairman, a spectacular fall in Olympus' share price and a series of fraud investigations in Japan, the UK and the US.

Now, and after fighting to take control of the company for the past three months, Woodford has announced in a statement that he was to drop his bid to help bring the company back on track.

"The last 12 weeks have been the most emotionally demanding and challenging period in my entire life," Woodford says in a statement. "The brutal way I was dismissed as President on 14 October, and the subsequent lies and denials, have been traumatising for all those around me, especially my family."

He adds: "It´s been a frightening period for my wife, who has suffered a lot and every night still wakes screaming in a trance and it takes several minutes to calm her. I cannot put her through any more anguish."

But Woodford also blames Olympus management and shareholders for their lack of support. "None of the major Japanese institutional shareholders have offered one word of support to me," he says, adding that they "have in effect allowed the tainted and contaminated board to continue in office."

He continues: "The fact that such a situation can exist despite the explicit findings of the third-party committee is depressing and totally disorientating to those looking in on Japan from the outside. This issue of the weaknesses created by the cross-shareholding system is the most important single factor Japan needs to address to be successful in confronting the obvious challenges it faces."

Now, Woodford plans on suing the company for unfair dismissal, seeking undisclosed damages, as well as compensation for the three years that remained in his four-year contract with Olympus.