Japan prosecutors weigh bringing case against Nissan after Ghosn arrest -Asahi
21/11/2018 01:58
TOKYO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Japanese prosecutors are
considering bringing a case against Nissan Motor Co 7201.T
after Chairman Carlos Ghosn's arrest on suspicion of financial
misconduct, the Asahi Shimbun daily said on Wednesday.
Ghosn, one of the global car industry's best-known leaders,
was arrested on Monday after Nissan's internal investigations
found he had allegedly engaged in years of wrongdoing, including
personal use of company money and under-reporting earnings. The
Japanese company plans to remove him as chairman on Thursday.
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Prosecutors said Ghosn and Representative Director Greg
Kelly conspired to understate Ghosn's compensation over five
years starting in fiscal 2010 as being about half of the actual
10 billion yen ($88.65 million).
The Asahi quoted unnamed sources as saying that the
mis-stating meant the company also bore responsibility and that
prosecutors were eyeing the possibility of putting together a
case against it.
Prosecutors were not immediately able to comment. Nissan
declined to comment on the report.
There has been no comment from Ghosn or Kelly on any of the
allegations against them, including a report in Japan's Nikkei
business daily on Tuesday that Ghosn had received share
price-linked compensation of about 4 billion yen over a
five-year period to March 2015 but that it went unreported in
Nissan's financial reports.
Reuters could not contact Ghosn or Kelly for comment.
Ghosn is also chairman and chief executive of Nissan's
French partner Renault RENA.PA , and chairman of Japan's
Mitsubishi Motors Corp 7211.T , the third partner in the
alliance.
Renault on Tuesday tapped its chief operating officer and a
senior board member to fill in for Ghosn, but the board
refrained from firing him while awaiting for detail on the
allegations - a decision that could buy more time for an
accelerated, permanent succession process. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1XV3FU
Shares in Nissan rose 0.6 percent on Wednesday after falling
nearly 6 percent a day earlier.
($1 = 112.8000 yen)
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
((elaine.lies@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
elaine.lies@thomsonreuters.com))