Ghosn Allegedly Signed Documents on Postretirement Pay

Tokyo, Dec. 6 (Jiji Press)--Former Nissan Motor Co. <7201> Chairman Carlos Ghosn, 64, is suspected of having signed documents showing the amount of his postretirement pay, informed sources said Thursday. The documents were also signed by a senior Japanese official of Nissan, who had secretly kept them, the sources said. The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office believes that the amount of Ghosn's postretirement pay had been fixed and that he should have therefore booked it in securities reports of the major Japanese automaker, the sources said. The team suspects that Ghosn's undisclosed pay totals 9 billion yen. The documents show the amounts of Ghosn's annual pay based on a contract concluded in 1999, when he became Nissan's chief operating officer, the amounts of already-paid remuneration and the difference between the figures. The special squad is believed to have obtained the papers by reaching a deal with the Japanese official based on Japan's plea-bargaining system, under which criminal punishment against the official would be reduced. The team believes that the unpaid remuneration was to be granted to Ghosn after retirement, the sources said. Ghosn and his close aide, then Nissan representative director Greg Kelly, 62, were arrested by the special prosecutors unit on Nov. 19 for allegedly understating Ghosn's pay for fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2014 by some 5 billion yen in Nissan's securities reports by making part of his remuneration payable after retirement. The prosecutors believe that the two also underreported Ghosn's pay by some 4 billion yen in total for the following three years using the same scheme and that they hid a total of about 9 billion yen for the eight years through fiscal 2017. Ghosn has told the prosecutors that the amount of his postretirement pay had not been fixed as future economic conditions were unclear, claiming that he had had no obligation to report the pay in Nissan securities reports. On Nov. 22, Nissan dismissed Ghosn as chairman and stripped the disgraced chief and Kelly of their rights to represent the company. END