The accounting scandal like the one that has gripped Japanese camera giant Olympus Corp. (PINK:OCPNY) is bad enough. A public suicide of a top Olympus executive, however, makes the dark events even harder to behold.

A senior executive was reportedly found dead in a children’s park outside his New Delhi, India, apartment this weekend. He hung himself and left suicide notes in Japanese – one for his family, and one for whoever was unfortunate enough to find his corpse.

That second note from Tsutomi Omori, the managing director of Olympus Medical Systems in India, said simply, “I am sorry for bothering you.”

The apparent suicide comes as investors are furious over a $1.7 billion accounting scandal at Olympus Corp. At the same time, shareholders have raised alarms that banks are trying to take control of the boardroom to ensure they get paid first – leaving investors holding the bag.

There is a lot of baggage here. Japanese corporate executives are notoriously noble, and take public shame like this very seriously. Western Investors have no patience for cooking the books after what seems like 10 straight years of Enrons, Bernie Madoffs, Raj Rajatnarams and AIGs.

Scandals like this become especially tragic when monetary losses are supplanted by the loss of human life.

Here’s hoping that whatever the outcome for Olympus Corp., those who would take similar actions think twice before continuing the long line of unfortunate events along these lines.

That goes for both the accounting scandal and the apparent suicide by this Olympic exec. Both horrible circumstances were very preventable.