crime

Kelly denies underreporting Ghosn's salary

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Ghosn is believed to have made his remuneration look smaller to avoid criticism from Nissan shareholders, they said.

BS, there is no way in hell the board didn't know how much he was getting paid, along with the accounting department who actually does the paperwork.

It's not like he was walking into the vault, if they even have one, and taking out cash!

It's turning out to be a "made for TV drama"

12 ( +14 / -2 )

Well they are continuing to hold him, without charges, now scrambling to find something to prosecute him with. This is starting to look rather embarrassing.

13 ( +16 / -3 )

The denial is interesting. Why aren't we hearing about it from his own legal defense, instead of nameless "sources," who are presumably Japanese officials. I guess the state will be monopolizing the message (with the Japanese media and public obediently nodding their heads).

Ghosn probably had no idea how much tax he was or wasn't paying.

The allegations don't say anything about taxes. The reporting was to a financial regulator, not the tax office. At this point, though, it would be interesting to see whether his recent tax returns reflect Nissan's allegations.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Ghosn should sue for not being able to make a public statement.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

The jealously at all Japanese companies runs deep for any foreigner in a management position. The claim his compensation was way too high (12 million Euro a year) but just a quick glance at coach's salary for top professional teams and its about equal. Make no mistake, Ghosn did nothing that a Japanese CEO wouldn't do and at least he doesn't suck air through his teeth...

13 ( +16 / -3 )

*Meanwhile, Nissan's corporate auditors suspect the company bought residences for Ghosn through an Amsterdam-based overseas investment subsidiary named Zi-A Capital BV, the sources said.

Who are these reporters?? Toddlers? All for clikckbait

Clicks for giggles? What's with the fake News to get clicks and views.

Sue and destroy them and Saikawa to the ground.

Isn't it the job and auditors to see everything for an international public trading company, How can anyone buy property under the radar?? Every yen is monitored, even when say a pen or pencil purchase is made, yet alone salaries and properties and other fallacy and fabrications they're trying to cook up now for clickbait

5 ( +8 / -3 )

We all know.... they're keeping these guys in Jail to control the narrative and by the time they get out most Japanese will be tired of hearing about it. It all part of this finely woven cultural machine. The whole culture is designed to incorporate foreign ideas but eventually spit out any unwanted aspects of them. This is the "pe" portion.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

@ Kenji Fujimori

For your information: The auditor of Nissan is Ernst & Young Shin Nihon, which happens to be the same company which earned a dubious reputation with the financial scandals at Olympus and Toshiba. According to Bloomberg, Ernst & Young’s Japanese affiliate was fined $18 million in 2015 for poor auditing of Toshiba, which resulted in Japan’s worst accounting scandal up to that point, and before that worked on Olympus, although it was cleared of blame for the $1.7 billion accounting fraud at that firm.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Money scandal of Ghosn is not the point. It was only used to get rid of him to protect Nissan from a merger with Renault. By merger, Renault which has 45% of Nissan stocks will control Nissan and they will control Nissan and build Nissan factories in France which will help their economy and employment while Japan will lose tax income from Nissan as well as employment. On the other hand, some say Nissan is even today not a Japanese company. Nissan is No. 5 car company in sales of cars in Japan and their profits come mostly from sales overseas. The other says the Japanese government is not concerned about the future of Nissan. They think Toyota and Honda are enough for Japanese car industry. Ghosn is sooner or later have to go for his age. His role of rebuilding Nissan is already finished. He did a remarkable job his first half tenure. He came to Japan as a cost cutter but he was not earnest in cutting his own cost in his latter half tenure.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

It seems to me that number 1 boss ordered number 2 boss to make the plan to understate his salary and number 2 boss ordered to make accountants to do it. Heard Nissan has pro-Ghosn side and anti-Ghosn side groups. Anti-group would not have known it at all but many of pro-Ghosn side group must have known the underreporting.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

If he was doing it, how many others were doing it?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I think the board try to shift the blame on the CEO so they can escape from financial impropriety. They have no excuse not to know. No matter how powerful the CEO.,he is appointed by the board .The board can be trial for collusion.I think they just try to pin it on This on the CEO .All are guilty include the board .They cheated the shareholder.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@keywest...agreed...Based on the very limited information we have I would agree that It is the fiduciary responsibility of the Board of Directors to know what transpired and they are liable for this. They are either lying or they are incompetent. Both are bad.

The way this seems to be playing out it may be possible a class action lawsuit could be filed against Nissan and the Nissan Board of Directors on behalf of the shareholders. I doubt this will happen though.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Redirecting assets “over several years.” How is this allowed to continually happen ???

1) With limited Japanese fluency and requiring a certain level of inside knowledge to manipulate things and people behind the scene, could two foreigners go it alone ?

2) Where was Internal Audit and the Board Audit Committee?

3) Where were the “Independent” Directors, appointed by the Board of Directors, heading the Compensation Committee?

4) Where were staff that should have been whistleblowers ? Were they “unheard” or worse ??

3 ( +3 / -0 )

As for me ? This is just a CRIMINAL justice system running its natural course-- criminal. Period.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Who became the new chairman of the board of directors?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

These supposed bits of "news" is becoming extremely tiring.

I want to read NEWS but this blurb & others are NOTHING of the sort its all PURE GOSSIP!!

We still don't really have an idea of what has supposedly happened in all this other than Nissan insiders have set up two foreign employee's up, still have no clue if they deserved to or not

The Japanese "justice" is once again on FULL EMBARASSING DISPLAY! The envy of dictators worldwide!

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Some countries do it quickly. Both suspects became guilty on the arrest day, so would shoot them for penalty on 2nd day, then they would shoot more suspects involved with this on 3rd day. That way must be better to get done.

If you have to compare to the lowest form of 'justice' to make this look ok, you're running out of arguments.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

GW says it right.

Stop to assertions from supposedly insiders based on void.

Firdt Mr Kelly denies.what about Mr Goshn ?

Reports have been made to Nissan as stated. So either they are all culprits, or this was a set-up.

By the way, what is a rogue group of the board doing to check clandestinely on the other half ?

Is it war time or something ? It is supposed to be a company with plenty of rules to follow for public reports. Authorities are obtaining all information like from other companies through many channels.

If Goshn would screw, do you believe he would do it in France, Lebanon or Japan ? Clever guess expected from all knowing he is heaf of multiple companies.

And the funniest thing, the name of the investment company which looks like one from a very bad movie.

Foreign reporters can now start investigating now though with so many clues lol.

Wait and see.

(International...) Justice to apply and culprits to fall please, whoever.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It really says it all that Nissan have already permanently replaced him. A normal company would suspend the accused, provide all their evidence to the authorities, & wait for an official charge or confirmation of the guilt before doing so (actually, almost what Renault have done). As others have commented, that other officials "turned a blind eye for a few years" means they are in fact guilty as well. Why are they not also behind bars?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It is quite interesting. Just had lunch with a Japanese friend of mine. He is in his 60's, retired, and he is pretty disgusted with the way Ghosn is being treated. He also said many of his friends feel the same way and are questioning why the Board of Directors did not do anything. He also said several of the Japanese shows he watches are asking these same questions.

It was an interesting discussion as I gave him the perspective of the international community on this issue and it seemed quite aligned.

In the end we both agreed that the best course of action would be for the Japanese government to step in and bring this under control and start to question the Nissan Board. He also thought this man should have had his passport held rather than have been brought into detention and that this all reflects badly on Japan.

It was quite interesting hearing this from a fairly conservative Japanese man in his 60's.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Nissan is digging its own grave. They are going to expose all the C level tax tricks. I hope they all get sacked from the shareholders for hiding money. The government certainly won't do anything because they are weak to big businesses

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Ghosn probably had no idea how much tax he was or wasn't paying. In fact he had to file taxes in several different countries receiving a salary from several different companies. His company assigned secretaries handled all the paperwork.

This has nothing (as yet) to do with his income tax, why do so many posters think it does?

I have been an ex-pat since the 1970s and have always known how much tax I have paid.

His tax situation will be complex depending on where he is tax resident, where he is domiciled and how he takes advantage of any tax treaties. A man earning his kind of salary will employ the right specialists to deal with his tax affairs and will certainly not use "company assigned secretaries" to "handle the paperwork".

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If this case was being investigated for a few months, why was Ghosn not invited the the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office to voluntarily answer any questions. I believe that is how things are generally done in Japan.

Instead he is arrested at an airport entering Japan, as usual a judge rubber stamps the prosecutors request to detain him, and now a man who, under the Japanese constitution is innocent until proven guilty, is bing detained in a detention center which by all accounts, boasts appalling conditions, and is not even allowed to make a statement.

Perhaps if Ghosn is indicted, it will be Japanese law which will be on trail.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Ex_ResToday 06:06 pm JST

If this case was being investigated for a few months, why was Ghosn not invited the the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office to voluntarily answer any questions. I believe that is how things are generally done in Japan.

NO even on TV if the police think they have enough evidence then they will rush towards the suspect for an arrest since they no they are against the clock where the suspect may destroy evidence.

When the police asks for voluntarily questioning it's mainly because they lack solid evidence to detain the suspect and without the prosecutor throwing out the case all together.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

It is amazing how greedy some people can be, I would be ashamed.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

When the police asks for voluntarily questioning it's mainly because they lack solid evidence to detain the suspect and without the prosecutor throwing out the case all together.

The prosecutors usually asks for voluntary questioning but if refused, they arrest you.  Same thing.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The prosecutors usually asks for voluntary questioning but if refused, they arrest you.  Same thing.

Correct Tina. This seems to have gone wrong at Police level.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Incidentally Tina, Japans penal code constitution states that the prosecutor and police should liaise, when dealing with a case. This does not appear to have happened.

Again, the judge should have spotted this.

I beg the question. Do judges in Japan understand know what their role is?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

First thing first, Who moved the funds ???.Carlos only ???Kerry only ???, impossible which ever country the moves, such a big amount...................it needs Japanese agreement. Who are they ???.We guess, the Japanese people who wants fame & fortune at the expense of Nissan & their Japanese share holders. I am very sorry......

who is out front saving himself ?????. He is out front saving himself, look at his house , is that a house of a normal president working in Japanese company ???.I regret that this person put all good Japanese to shame.How do everyone think , he got the information so detailed ???. We should check his income & how he accumulate his wealth ???. Look at his car ???.at the expense of Nissan & Japanese share-holders.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Ex_Res,   It was the Prosecutors who asked for voluntary questioning and arrested the two.  Special Investigation Department, not the Police.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Tina. Would Special Investigation Department not require an arrest warrant from judge?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Based on the very limited information we have I would agree that It is the fiduciary responsibility of the Board of Directors to know what transpired and they are liable for this. They are either lying or they are incompetent. Both are bad.

@Tokyo-Engr, how far does the board's responsibility go? For example, if a third-party company of auditors has signed off on the accounts, would that not be enough for the board? (Honest question. I really don't know.)

Like everyone, I lack information and just have a bunch of questions. Maybe it's just a simple case of Ghosn stealing the company's money. On the other hand, I heard today of a conjecture that it was to prevent Nissan having to pass on military secrets to China in the event of Renault and Nissan formally becoming a single company. Right now, with such a lack of information, we can't properly apply Occam's Razor.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Based on the very limited information we have I would agree that It is the fiduciary responsibility of the Board of Directors to know what transpired and they are liable for this. They are either lying or they are incompetent. Both are bad.

@Tokyo-Engr, how far does the board's responsibility go? For example, if a third-party company of auditors has signed off on the accounts, would that not be enough for the board? (Honest question. I really don't know.)

Like everyone, I lack information and just have a bunch of questions. Maybe it's just a simple case of Ghosn stealing the company's money. On the other hand, I heard today of a conjecture that it was to prevent Nissan having to pass on military secrets to China in the event of Renault and Nissan formally becoming a single company. Right now, with such a lack of information, we can't properly apply Occam's Razor.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Based on the very limited information we have I would agree that It is the fiduciary responsibility of the Board of Directors to know what transpired and they are liable for this. They are either lying or they are incompetent. Both are bad.

@Tokyo-Engr, how far does the board's responsibility go? For example, if a third-party company of auditors has signed off on the accounts, would that not be enough for the board? (Honest question. I really don't know.)

Like everyone, I lack information and just have a bunch of questions. Maybe it's just a simple case of Ghosn stealing the company's money. On the other hand, I heard today of a conjecture that it was to prevent Nissan having to pass on military secrets to China in the event of Renault and Nissan formally becoming a single company. Right now, with such a lack of information, we can't properly apply Occam's Razor.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Would Special Investigation Department not require an arrest warrant from judge?

Of course the Prosecutors already have an arrest warrant in a pocket when they ask for voluntery questioning in case refused.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Of course the Prosecutors already have an arrest warrant in a pocket when they ask for voluntary questioning in case refused.

Which brings me right back to my original question. Do judges in Japan understand know what their role is?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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