Tokyo Court Convicts Ex-Nissan Executive Greg Kelly

A Tokyo court on Thursday handed Nissan Motor executive Greg Kelly a sixth month suspended sentence for helping Carlos Ghosn hide pay from financial regulators.

The chief judge told Kelly in court that the court finds the existence of unpaid remuneration” and the failure to disclose “the grand total” amounted to “false” reporting.

The judge also blamed Toshiaki Ohnuma, an official who oversaw details of Ghosn’s compensation, who avoided charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors.

The court also fined Nissan 200 million yen which is about $1.73 million for its failure to disclose Ghosn’s pay. Japan’s No.3 carmaker pleaded guilty at the start of the trial 18 months ago.

The verdict, more than three years after Kelly’s arrest alongside Ghosn, may be the closest a Japanese court gets to ruling on the culpability of Nissan’s ex-chief.

Ghosn is beyond the reach of Japanese prosecutors after fleeing to Lebanon in 2019 hidden in a box on a private jet.

The charges arose from a financial regulation change in 2010 that required executives earning more than 1 billion yen ($8.71 million) to disclose their pay.

Kelly denied breaking the law and testified that his only intent was to give Ghosn, who was also the chief executive at Renault, a compensation package that would dissuade him from defecting to a rival automaker.