Ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn raps ex-aide’s guilty verdict as “face saving”

Paris – Former Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn on Thursday criticized the guilty verdict handed to his former aide Greg Kelly by a Tokyo court for helping him underreport his remuneration, saying it was a “face-saving” judgment for the prosecutors and Japanese automaker.

In an online interview with Kyodo News, Ghosn also condemned the Tokyo District Court’s description of him as the “chief culprit in the case,” saying the fact that the judge made such a determination about a person not on trial showed the “arrogance” of Japan’s justice system.

It was “very sad to see the judge comment on me in my absence,” Ghosn said, speaking in Lebanon where he fled from Tokyo in late 2019 after he jumped bail following his arrest in November 2018.

“In my absence, they wanted at all cost to incriminate me,” the 67-year-old said.

On Thursday, the court handed Kelly, the former Nissan representative director, a six-month suspended prison sentence for helping Ghosn underreport his remuneration for fiscal 2017, but it acquitted him on all other counts relating to the automaker’s financial reports covering the previous seven years.

Ghosn said the ruling, which also ordered Nissan to pay fines of ¥200 million ($1.7 million), was primarily intended to save the faces of prosecutors but also the automaker, which had cooperated in the investigation.

“In my view, the verdict was to save prosecutors’ face first of all, so they could register a new victory,” Ghosn said, referring to Japan’s high conviction rate that stands at around 99%.

“It’s also saving the face of Nissan, which had been a guilty party since the beginning,” he said. Japan’s third-largest automaker has admitted to failing to properly declare the former auto tycoon’s remuneration in financial documents.

In Japan, Nissan said Friday the company will not appeal the ruling, saying in a statement that the ruling was a “legitimate judgment that was established on evidence.” Kelly, meanwhile, has said he will appeal the suspended sentence as he is “completely innocent,” according to his team of layers.

Ghosn said the ruling was “somewhat predictable” after Japanese authorities “tried to make up something in my view that cannot be held against him (Kelly).”

But he expressed relief that his 65-year-old former American aide will be able to return home with the suspended sentence, saying, “The fact that he can return at any moment to the United States was a relief personally.”

The ruling was the first judicial decision in the high-profile case that started to unfold when Ghosn was arrested along with Kelly more than three years ago. Since then, Ghosn has insisted on his innocence and criticized Japan’s judicial system.

Ghosn defended his decision to escape to the Middle Eastern country, saying, “I did not leave Japan because I feared Japanese justice. I left Japan because I feared Japanese injustice.”

“If I had stayed in Japan, I would not have been able to speak to the press, I would not have been able to defend myself,” he said, adding that he is now able to denounce Japan’s system, which he argued in practice does not respect the presumption of innocence.

Ghosn has been under investigation by French authorities over the alleged misappropriation of funds at Renault SA by Ghosn, who was also the French automaker’s former CEO. Ghosn has denied the allegation.

“One is never serene when we have investigating judges and prosecutors at your heels,” he said.