After a trial on charges of financial misconduct in Japan, former Nissan executive Greg Kelly is awaiting the court’s verdict.
Kelly was arrested by Japanese authorities at the same time as Carlos Ghosn, but while Ghosn skipped bail and fled Japan in 2019, Kelly was left behind. He is awaiting the verdict from his recent trial with prosecutors alleging that he under-reported Ghosn’s compensation from Nissan.
For now, Kelly is out on bail and during a recent interview with The Associated Press, expressed his disbelief as to why concerns about Ghosn’s compensation weren’t taken up in Nissan’s corporate boardroom.
“I don’t think any of us were involved in a crime, or a criminal activity,” Kelly said. “We were involved in trying to solve a business problem, which was: What actions do you take that are lawful to retain a very valuable executive who was underpaid? It should have been resolved at the corporate level at Nissan. It’s not a criminal matter.”
In November 2018, Nissan requested that Kelly fly from his home in Nashville to Japan for a meeting. The Japanese automaker arranged a corporate jet for him. Shortly after landing, he got in a van and soon after, several men rushed into the van, arresting Kelly and identifying themselves as prosecutors and a translator. Kelly was questioned by prosecutors in an interrogation room without a lawyer present and was then kept in solitary confinement for 35 days. Kelly, a lawyer himself, believes Nissan was behind the arrest.
Carlos Ghosn had his salary from Nissan slashed from roughly 2 billion yen ($20 million) to 1 billion yen ($10 million) in 2009. Prosecutors allege there was an elaborate plan to make up for the pay cut but Kelly and Ghosn believe the arrest was a coup from Nissan as they were among just a few executives that supported closer ties between the Japanese automaker and Renault.
“There is absolutely no evidence,” Kelly’s chief attorney Yoichi Kitamura said. “Nissan and the prosecutors got together and concocted this into a criminal case.”
Over 99 per cent of Japanese criminal trials result in convictions and if convicted, 64-year-old Kelly faces up to 15 years in prison.