Ghosn's Undisclosed Pay May Have Topped 9 B. Yen: Sources

Tokyo, Dec. 5 (Jiji Press)--Former Nissan Motor Co. <7201> Chairman Carlos Ghosn's undisclosed pay may have exceeded 9 billion yen, informed sources said Wednesday. Ghosn was arrested last month for allegedly underreporting his annual pay by a total of nearly 5 billion yen in Nissan securities reports for fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2014, or about half of his actual compensation over the five years. An additional 4 billion yen in his pay may have been undisclosed in total between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2017, outnumbering the disclosed pay totaling 2.9 billion yen for the three-year period, which ended in March this year, according to the sources. Ghosn and his close aides, including former Representative Director Greg Kelly, who was arrested together with Ghosn, are suspected of maneuvering to allow Ghosn to receive the undisclosed amounts after his retirement. Ghosn has told investigators that his pay, if it had been fully disclosed, would have hurt the morale of Nissan employees, the sources said. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office believes that all of his executive compensation, including any deferred pay, should have been reported. But Ghosn is said to be insisting that there was no obligation to disclose deferred pay that was not fixed. END