When Carlos Ghosn fled Tokyo, he left a former colleague behind: Greg Kelly, Nissan’s former head of legal, remains on bail awaiting trial on a charge of financial misconduct.
Both men were arrested in November 2018 and were due to be tried alongside Nissan in a court case starting in late April.
But Mr Kelly, a 63-year-old US citizen, is now concerned that Mr Ghosn’s flight to Lebanon will delay proceedings, leaving him in legal limbo for months.
“He is certainly concerned that this could delay his trial and whether the truth will be properly revealed,” said Yoichi Kitamura, Mr Kelly’s lawyer based in Tokyo.
According to Mr Kitamura, Mr Kelly has denied knowledge of his former boss’s escape, telling his lawyer pointedly: “I’m not his confidant. I think that’s now clear.”
While Mr Ghosn was spirited out of the country eight days ago in an elaborate scheme involving a box with air holes drilled in it and private jets to Istanbul and then Beirut, Mr Kelly was left in Tokyo.
Mr Ghosn was charged with four counts of financial misconduct. Mr Kelly is solely accused of conspiring with his former boss to understate Mr Ghosn’s pay in Nissan’s financial statements. He has denied the charge, saying the disclosure of his compensation was made legally in consultation with external experts.
In its first statement since Mr Ghosn fled Japan, Nissan said on Tuesday that it still held its former chairman responsible for “serious misconduct”, adding: “Nissan discovered numerous acts of misconduct by Ghosn through a robust, thorough internal investigation.”
The comments came a day before Mr Ghosn is scheduled to hold a news conference in Beirut.
Security levels on Mr Kelly have not been increased since Mr Ghosn fled, according to people familiar with his situation, because he is not considered a flight risk.
While Mr Ghosn spent 129 days behind bars before he was released under strict bail conditions, Mr Kelly was released after five weeks of detention in December 2018 to receive neck surgery in Japan for a spinal ailment. His own bail conditions, which restrict him from travelling overseas and contacting officials at Nissan, are also lighter than those imposed on Mr Ghosn, who was banned from seeing his wife.
Yet in order to stay with her husband, Mr Kelly’s wife Donna, known as Dee, has had to enrol in a Japanese language school to qualify for a student visa, which lasts for one year — longer than a tourist visa.
Having flown back to the US for the birth of their grandchild, she returned to Japan earlier this week.
Even with the key defendant having left the country, the trial is unlikely to be suspended. Carl Tobias, chair in law at the University of Richmond, said Mr Kelly’s legal team might push for repatriation to the US, arguing the American citizen should return home.
If it proceeds as planned, legal and accounting experts say Japan’s regulation on executive compensation, which obliges companies to disclose how much pay a director is expected to receive when there is clarity, is open to interpretation. Mr Kelly’s defence is expected to focus on whether there was a formal agreement with Nissan about Mr Ghosn’s payment scheme.
“I’m not ruling out the possibility that Mr Kelly will receive a not-guilty verdict,” said Yasuyuki Takai, a prosecutor-turned-defence lawyer.
In the run-up to his arrest, Mr Kelly, who had retired from his Nissan executive role but still sat on the board, was asked by the company to travel from the US to Japan to attend one more meeting. He initially declined to attend, citing impending neck surgery that made it difficult for him to sit on a plane for long periods.
Hari Nada, who replaced Mr Kelly as head of legal at Nissan, arranged for a private jet to take him, promising he would return in time for his operation, according to people familiar with the matter.
But when he arrived at the airport, he was arrested. Much like Mr Ghosn, Mr Kelly spent weeks in a holding cell without a bed or, initially, a pillow.
He eventually received surgery at a hospital outside of Tokyo, but his condition and recovery have been affected by his treatment by the legal authorities, according to people who have spent time with Mr Kelly during his detention.
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January 07, 2020 at 11:00AM
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When Carlos Ghosn fled Japan, he left an old colleague behind - Financial Times
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