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Kelly's trial increasingly focusing on Nissan-Renault rift

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By YURI KAGEYAMA

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Isn't that what partnership is all about, the more shares you own the more voting rights you get?

The issue was that Renault was not making much profit but getting to make the lion's share of the decisions. And, to be frank, Renault does not exactly have a sterling record for quality, whereas Nissan's (while not the best) exceeded that of Renault. I can see how the two companies did not see eye-to-eye on issues such as quality, emissions, etc.. My feeling is that Renault executives thought of Nissan as a 'subsidiary of Renault' whereas the Nissan executives didn't feel likewise.

In 2017, Nissan sold about 40% more cars than Renault and also likely had a higher profit margin per car than Renault.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manufacturers_by_motor_vehicle_production

Yet, Renault treated Nissan like a subsidiary.

And...Renault was looking into merging with Fiat during 2017. And, I think we all know that Fiat is not exactly the highest quality car manufacturer out there. If that merger went through, Nissan would have had virtually no say whatsoever in the corporate decisions.

Lots of blame to go around. It's basically like a divorce, except in this case it's two companies.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Isn't that what partnership is all about, the more shares you own the more voting rights you get?

Only if the corporate structure and shareholder's agreement states that. In general, a 株式会社 (かぶしきがいしゃ - kabushikigaisha - share holder's company) gives voting rights by the number of shares. A 合同会社 (ごうどうがいしゃ - goudougaisha - limited liability company) gives an equal vote to each shareholder. Shareholder agreements and various legal precedents etc define the specific voting rights of each shareholder.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

""The French government owns 15% of Renault, which owns 44% of Nissan. Nissan owns 15% of Renault but has no voting rights.""

and the Japanese government owns 60% of Nissan, which owns 15% of Renault , Renault owns 44% of Nissan but has 44% of the voting rights.

Isn't that what partnership is all about, the more shares you own the more voting rights you get?

Renault took Nissan out of the $$HIT hole it was and still resting inn and when Nissan noticed the chance to take the company back from a GAIJIN Renault they went after the GAIJIN CEO. This is a fact.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@Muratafan

A very intelligent analysis of this whole situation, and how it has come to this.

I think that the only good thing that has come out of this, is that Japan's legal system's very serious flaws have been exposed. The crux of the problem lies in Tokyo's public prosecutors office. You can't have a prosecutor who deals with Japanese, and a prosecutor who deals with non-Japanese. (The latter. disguised as a specialist prosecutor). I have ways been uncomfortable with this because many, many years ago, a prosecutor who deals with non-Japanese told me that during WW2 he was in charge of western POW's. May not be relevant to anything, but it gave me an uncomfortable feeling.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Ghosn turned around Nissan no doubt. However, he suffered from a very, very common CEO problem of 'Empire Building', which is a function of hubris. I think the Nissan-Renault 'merger' was doomed from the start and there's a reason why there are so few international 'mergers of equals'. This was a very tenuous alliance all along and I am quite sure that the French executives ignored the issues raised by Japanese executives. Ghosn thought he could navigate the two cultures and seamlessly integrate the two companies....or subsume Nissan as part of Renault.

Michael Porter had a great line 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast.'

The strategy of being the one of the biggest car companies in the world and benefiting from scale was more than offset by differences in French and Japanese business culture. Ghosn thought he could overcome those hurdles. He was wrong.

Is he guilty of wrongdoing? I rather doubt it and by American standards his corporate perks were pretty run of the mill. But, you could clearly see Japanese executives being upset at (a) being ignored by Ghosn and his cronies and (b) flaunting his wealth/position. (a) is clearly the reason why this all went down and Nissan is using (b) to try Ghosn in the court of public opinion.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What are the Japanese imaging ???. this is Japan. This unfair play will not be kindly look upon by the world. Nobody with real skills will want to work here. Who wants to help Japanese company makes money and get jailed ???. Fighting on their own grounds and still unfair. Never buy nissan.

I quite agree. Why are Japan's prosecutors and judiciary trying to degrade a once great nation?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

What are the Japanese imaging ???. this is Japan. This unfair play will not be kindly look upon by the world. Nobody with real skills will want to work here. Who wants to help Japanese company makes money and get jailed ???. Fighting on their own grounds and still unfair. Never buy nissan.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Any normal judge in an advanced country would just throw this out of court, 

I don't think so. In case of Ghosn, he offered USD 14 million as bail and he became an international fugitive, do you really think that any judge will throw this case out of court?

This is Mr. Kelly on trail, not Mr.Ghosn.

About Japanese prosecutors, they will follow Ghosn around the world wherever he goes and will try to make his life miserable as much as they can, especially follow him with interpol red alerts and cutting off his financial sources to his banking accounts - this case will continue for a very long time I guess.

Japanese prosecutors (bureaucrats) have no jurisdiction in other countries. The country where Mr.Ghosn is now have made it clear that they will not return him two Japan. Japan has no jurisdiction in foriegn countries banks.

His abidor Kelly is now facing a Japanese judge, the Taylors who helped Ghosn to skip bail and to leave Japan were arrested in USA and extradited to Japan, others who were helping with the airplane are facing trials in Turkey, and Ghosn and his wife are hiding in Lebanon.

No one is "hiding" in Lebanon. The matter does not involve Mrs.Ghosn. As for thr Taylors. I would call them hostages and martyrs.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Alan HarrisonToday 07:44 pm JST

Any normal judge in an advanced country would just throw this out of court, 

I don't think so. In case of Ghosn, he offered USD 14 million as bail and he became an international fugitive, do you really think that any judge will throw this case out of court?

About Japanese prosecutors, they will follow Ghosn around the world wherever he goes and will try to make his life miserable as much as they can, especially follow him with interpol red alerts and cutting off his financial sources to his banking accounts - this case will continue for a very long time I guess.

His abidor Kelly is now facing a Japanese judge, the Taylors who helped Ghosn to skip bail and to leave Japan were arrested in USA and extradited to Japan, others who were helping with the airplane are facing trials in Turkey, and Ghosn and his wife are hiding in Lebanon.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Kawaguchi; former Nissan executive turned whistleblower Hari Nada and former Nissan auditor Hidetoshi Imazu described in their testimonies how they had gone to the prosecutors without consulting the company's board. That led to the arrests of Ghosn and Kelly.

....those pigs, dirty little scoundrels. Ruining two men's lives just like that, over some useless false pride. And yet that dirty RAT saikawa hasn't been touched once. It's so BLOODY SCANDALOUS!!! Words alone can't describe how irritated this entire farce makes me feel about this country and some of the idiots that live here. Ridiculous beyond belief.

Send them to north korea and let them experience the same or worse treatment that Ghosn and Kelly went through.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Any normal judge in an advanced country would just throw this out of court, and any Head of State in an advanced country would order a judicial review into the prosecutors office, and the justice ministry as a whole. Japan has become a stupid little circus, but a very barbaric one.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

@Sal Affist

So Mr. Kelly has been jobless for over two years and forced to pay for his living costs and the extremely expensive white collar-crime lawyers. The slow pace almost seems like a way to grind him down and at some point he will be penniless and unable to continue his defence. 

Cry me a river! Kelly and penniless? As a former Nissan director? Are you joking? He has plenty of money. Kelly is an US attorney and joined Nissan North America in 1988. In USA in 2019 he paid to US regulators USD 100.000,- out of his wallet for abiding Ghosn to hide USD 140 million.

Jobless? You have to blame US regulators for that as they barred him for five years in USA as executive officer.

In Japan he had the choice to stay in the detention house for free or to offer yen 70 million (about USD 630.000.,-) as bail and wait in a place of his choice in Tokyo. He could provide this money. He also received permission to ask his wife to stay with him, Japan Immigration offered her a long-stay visa.

About living costs, as far as I know he rented an entire house in an expensive residential area in the center of Tokyo. He was never under house arrest and could move around in all Tokyo.

BTW, lawyers are known to be even more expensive in USA compared to Japan, lawyers do not work for free.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Earlier this year, Ghosn said French investigators had visited Lebanon to question him about probes in France into transactions between Renault and an Oman distributor; payments by a Renault-Nissan holding company in Amsterdam and a party Ghosn held at Versailles. Ghosn suggested that Japanese investigators do the same.

So ghosn is definitely probably guilty, and his wife and son. He is guilty 100% for skipping bail.

this story is about Kelly though. Sounds probable that he was abused by ghosn and involved in a major industrial dispute. Feel sorry for him. He doesn’t have luxurious villas around the world, just maybe works to hard.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

So Mr. Kelly has been jobless for over two years and forced to pay for his living costs and the extremely expensive white collar-crime lawyers. The slow pace almost seems like a way to grind him down and at some point he will be penniless and unable to continue his defence. Wasn't this the trial where the Prosecutors released a million pages of documents right before trial, and then required Mr. Kelly and his attorneys to only view them on one little monitor in one room only during working hours?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

@bokuda

Ghosn was detained and bailed in 2 years period summing up 130 days of solitary confinement.

when he jumped bail there was still no trial date.

The problem with saying that Ghosn's detention was far too long is that you don't tell us exactly how long prosecutors should have when it comes to investigating and prosecuting international white-collar corporate fraud cases. Unlike burglaries or even murders, international white-collar crimes are some of the most complex, expensive and time consuming cases that the justice system handles. In America, they've basically given up on prosecuting corporate criminals and now offer them multi-million dollar settlements (like the ones Ghosn and Kelly agreed to). It's one set of rules for the CEOs and another for the little guy. Should Japan adopt the same system? I hope not.

it's common for the prosecutor to deny bail repeatedly, and when gets out of reasons for the denial, just don't give any reason. judges are puppets in the prosecutor hands anyway.

Obviously the reason for initially denying bail was justified because Ghosn was a massive flight risk. This is now beyond dispute.

there's no reason for the arrests. balant violation of the habeas corpus.

There absolutely was good reason for the arrest. The extent of the financial crimes Ghosn is accused of committing is extremely serious. If police had simply invited him to voluntarily attend an interview at the police station, it's reasonable to believe that Ghosn would have destroyed incriminating evidence before any arrest. The arrest was necessary to secure this evidence.

it says that as the j-gov is not denying the facts, it makes them even more trustworthy.

They neither confirmed nor denied many of the facts. They didn't reveal any personal information related to Ghosn's case since Japanese law forbids the release of this information. It's unfortunate but it is what it is.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

@M3

ok, lets go one by one.

*The Government has not explained the reasons for the refusal of bail on these occasions.

it's common for the prosecutor to deny bail repeatedly, and when gets out of reasons for the denial, just don't give any reason. judges are puppets in the prosecutor hands anyway.

*In the absence of any justification from the Government** of the need for such repeated arrests

refer to the previous statement. there's no reason for the arrests. balant violation of the habeas corpus.

Furthermore, in the absence of an explanation from the Government as to why restraints were needed during Mr. Ghosn’s court appearance, the Working Group finds that handcuffing and the use of a waist rope represented a further violation of his right to the presumption of innocence

uaah! Ghosn got abused more than i thought.

you're misinterpreting the document. it says that as the j-gov is not denying the facts, it makes them even more trustworthy.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@bokuda

you're trying to change the narrative.

what i read here is based on facts, don't see anything biased or not heavily proven.

I recommend downloading the full working group report rather than relying on a Bloomberg article. They make it quite clear at various points that their conclusions have been reached due to the absence of any alternative explanation from the Japanese government (as opposed to carefully considering both sides, weighing the arguments, and independently verifying the facts). The working group had no choice but to side against the state party which refused to supply any justification for the detention.

For example, they write in paragraph 67:

*The Government has not explained the reasons for the refusal of bail on these occasions. In the absence of such an explanation, the Working Group cannot accept the argument that Mr. Ghosn’s pretrial detention was properly constituted in accordance with article 9 (3) of the Covenant. *

In paragraph 68:

*In the absence of any justification from the Government** of the need for such repeated arrests, the Working Group considers that this revolving pattern of detention was an extrajudicial abuse of process *

In paragraph 72:

*In the absence of an alternative explanation from the Government**, the repeated arrest of Mr. Ghosn appears to be an abuse of process intended to ensure that he remained in custody. *

In paragraph 81:

*Furthermore, in the absence of an explanation from the Government as to why restraints were needed during Mr. Ghosn’s court appearance, the Working Group finds that handcuffing and the use of a waist rope represented a further violation of his right to the presumption of innocence*

Every major finding is carefully caveated in this way. The working group is openly and honestly acknowledging the limits of how reliable their conclusions might be in light of the limited information they were given.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

@Yohan

interrogation with no lawyer present might be done in 3rd world countries, or in Guantanamo Bay. but it's against the international law.

Ghosn was detained and bailed in 2 years period summing up 130 days of solitary confinement.

when he jumped bail there was still no trial date.

how do you think he was feeling? would you still trust the Japanese justice after that?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I hope the Americans and their media are following this closely, still surprised this got to trial.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@bokuda

 if i thrown in solitary confinement with daily interrogations without lawyer. i would jump bail too.

He was out on bail, when he decided to skip USD 14 million bail and not in 'solitary confinement'.

In many countries during police interrogations you have no access to lawyers, also in Europe.

For Japan it was a good business, the government got USD 14 million and he is gone - at least for a while.

The mistake Ghosn made was to think he can regulate all with money as he did it in USA in 2019 . He paid USD 1 million to US regulators, barred 10 years as corporate executive and this was it. He was likely confident in Japan it's about the same, to pay some USD millions and to walk away, but this did not work out as he expected it.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

@P. Smith

More than 99% of Japan’s criminal trials result in convictions.

This is impossible in a justice system that is concerned about actual justice.

Keep in mind, that laws and their execution are not the same everywhere.

It is easily possible if you compare USA and Japan. In Japan, as only few very serious cases make it up to prosecutors the number of convicted prisoners in Japan is very small - about 50.000 people. Compare this with USA and its huge 2.3 million prison population.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

@Yohan

It was necessary as we can see now

absolutely necessary. if i thrown in solitary confinement with daily interrogations without lawyer. i would jump bail too.

i would lose any hope of justice by the second week of interrogations.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

@M3

you're trying to change the narrative.

what i read here is based on facts, don't see anything biased or not heavily proven.

(Bloomberg) -- Carlos Ghosn’s detention for almost 130 days in a Japanese jail was neither necessary nor reasonable and violated the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman’s human rights, a UN panel concluded in a harsh critique of Tokyo prosecutors who led the case against him.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@bokuda

Ghosn is also investigated by French authorities. It's not only about Japan.

About Japan (and not only in Japan) to skip $ 14 million bail and to leave the country illegally is a crime for itself.

Various media reported around 15th of December 2020, that a French judge had authorized authorities to seize nearly $ 16 million in assets from Ghosn and his wife, Carole, pending the outcome of the investigation. It was reported that French authorities are preparing a major tax adjustment.

Ghosn is claiming while he is holding French nationality, he was a non-resident in France, his residence was in Netherlands.

There are also other investigations against Ghosn in France going on. Ghosn and his wife too are not in a good position in Lebanon, they cannot go to France, USA, Japan, South Korea and some other countries without risk being arrested. He is in big trouble, also Switzerland is checking about his banking accounts.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

@Yoshi

Ghosn is no criminal, so how can that stand Ghosn is an Interpol red notice international fugitive

Japan issued that order, by now Interpol knows that it has no grounds and will probably stand by the UN, and back down.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

@bokuda

wanna talk about human rights?

Carlos Ghosn’s detention for almost 130 days in a Japanese jail was neither necessary nor reasonable...

It was necessary as we can see now - Ghosn managed to get out on bail, USD 14 million, and he used this opportunity to forfeit this huge amount and to escape. His helpers were arrested, extradited and try now the same, but both US and Japanese judges denied the request to let them out on bail.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

The truth is cumming out! It was never about the money! It was all about Nissan wanting to be independent. And they setup Ghosn to achieve that! And the fact that prosecutors are pushing this case is disgusting!

5 ( +6 / -1 )

@bokuda

If you're looking for my reaction to the UNHRC working group, I'll just paste the same comment I left on Nov 24 explaining why the findings don't carry as much weight as one might imagine.

it wasn't a comprehensive outside review of Ghosn's case. The conclusions were reached on the assumption that everything Ghosn was alleging was true. The other side was not presented because the Japanese government didn't provide specific details while the case is still pending. The UN working group took the view that Japan should ignore its own domestic laws and procedures in order to cooperate with their investigation, so the result is unsurprising.

If you read the full report, it's very carefully qualified with words such as: 'The source alleges...' and 'According to the source...' and 'In the absence of an alternative explanation from the Government...'. This was effectively a default judgement against a party that didn't participate fully in the proceedings.

You can read the report here:

https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Detention/Opinions/Session88/A_HRC_WGAD_2020_59_Advance_Edited_Version.pdf

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

@M3

bokuda Today 10:13 am JST

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@ZorotoToday 

The vast-vast majority of people awaiting a trial in the US are not detained, but out on bail.

And how is this different from Japan? Ghosn and Kelly were also out on bail, but Ghosn decided to skip bail and became an international fugitive. He posted a huge bail, USD 14 million, which is now forfeited.

Should he ever enter Japan a prison sentence cannot be avoided.

Kelly was acting more responsible while out on bail and preferred to wait and stand trial in Japan. I guess not much will happen to him. He was only assisting Ghosn, but there is no evidence that he did this to his own financial advantage.

Quite similar situation as 2019 in USA. Ghosn was fined by US regulators USD 1 million, and Kelly only USD 100.000,- for abiding Ghosn.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@fxgai

charged Monday with helping a criminal escape. 

Ghosn is no criminal, so how can that stand

Ghosn is an Interpol red notice international fugitive who skipped bail and this alone makes him a criminal. Should he ever enter USA or Japan, he will be arrested on arrival.

Two guys from USA who helped him to escape were already extradited from USA awaiting trial in Japan.

Ghosn and Kelly are not so 'innocent' but in USA you can often regulate some certain questionable activities with money. In 2019 US securities regulators charged Carlos Ghosn with hiding more than $140 million from investors. Ghosn paid $1 million in fines to settle the matter and is now barred from serving as a corporate executive for 10 years in USA. SEC also charged ex-board member Greg Kelly with aiding in the fraud. He agreed to a $100,000 fine and a five-year corporate officer ban.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

@M3

wanna talk about human rights?

yeah, just what i thought.

Sure. What exactly do you want to talk about?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@M3

wanna talk about human rights?

yeah, just what i thought.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The story about Goshn, I felt the same when I went managing in Japan.

The non-leaders were all nice and stayed nice.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

charged Monday with helping a criminal escape. 

Ghosn is no criminal, so how can that stand

4 ( +7 / -3 )

You're down in the gutters so much that you're desperate to receive any help, including that from a gaijin. You reap all the benefits and work your way back to the top with all that help. Then, you ditch those gaijins and cleanse yourself of them.

Bite the hand that feeds.

One day, you may find yourself back in the gutters again. Only this time, nobody will want to touch you with a barge pole.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

@Ascissor

But to many of us here, these shenanigans are the more interesting story :)

That's fair enough. I've also been entertained by the shenanigans at Nissan, but it's something else entirely for people to claim that Carlos is innocent just because he was betrayed by scheming co-workers.

@Zoroto

The vast-vast majority of people awaiting a trial in the US are not detained, but out on bail.

I'm not denying this but I think you've missed the statistical significance of my point. The average number of people in pre-trial detention at any given time (around 520,000) remains the same regardless of how many individuals are eventually bailed. As prisoners are bailed, new ones are arrested and take their place. To put it a different way, the innocent serve roughly 78,000 hours in US jails every 60 minutes.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

i might be mistaken, but i believe that a fault in the process nullify the trial.

UN and some other international organizations are denouncing Human rights violations in the process.

Can we ignore the violations an proceed with the case?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Now I finally know who is the black sheep - Hitoshi Kawaguchi.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

M3M3M3

I agree that all the background shenanigans don't determine whether or not Kelly and Ghosn knowingly submitted false reports.

But to many of us here, these shenanigans are the more interesting story :)

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Unequivocal confirmation that this was never about Ghosn's alleged wrongdoing.

Rather, it was about preventing an integration of Nissan into Renault!

It was about "saving" Nissan from the foreigners!

That does seem to be the motivation. The question is whether the actions for which Ghosn was charged were illegal or not. (I don't claim to know either way).

0 ( +6 / -6 )

@M3

wanna talk about human rights?

(Bloomberg) -- Carlos Ghosn’s detention for almost 130 days in a Japanese jail was neither necessary nor reasonable and violated the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman’s human rights, a UN panel concluded in a harsh critique of Tokyo prosecutors who led the case against him.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Saikawa also told the court that he signed several draft documents

why wasn't Saikawa detained in solitary confinement, interrogated for 130 days like Ghosn and Kelly?

18 ( +18 / -0 )

Ghosn and Kelly were stashing the cash in obscene amounts. Their greed and disdain for their Japanese counterparts caused the envy and jealousy which turned them against the foreign high rollers.

The pair should be locked up for a long time, fined to the limit and then be forced to do community service

-18 ( +1 / -19 )

Boy does this blurb ever shine a bright light on the very DARK side of business in Japan, gaijin be aware & BEWARE!!! Scary stuff when govt & companies gang up on people!

16 ( +16 / -0 )

The remuneration in question was not executive compensation, It was planned to reward Ghosn for his services to Nissan after his retirement, Also the former Nissan CEO Saikawa said "compensation for his predecessor Carlos Ghosn was too low "by international standards," and so he supported Ghosn's retirement packages to prevent him from leaving."

Saikawa also told the court that he signed several draft documents on remuneration packages for Ghosn, including retirement pay, consultant fees and a non-compete agreement to prevent him from moving to a competition.

So who signed off on the deals Saikawa did not Kelly.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

@P. Smith

This is impossible in a justice system that is concerned about actual justice.

The only way this is possible is when there are not sufficient protections for the rights of defendants in the form of attorneys present during interrogation, video and audio recordings of interrogations, relatively indefinite detention, etc.

Not necessarily. The conviction rate can also be explained by Japanese prosecutors being reluctant to bring cases unless they have strong evidence. They see acquittals as a failure on their part to make proper charging decisions. Prosecutions are obviously far rarer in Japan than in countries like the US, UK etc, even taking lower crime rates into account.

From a human rights perspective, a low conviction rate can also be just as troubling as a high one. A low conviction rate means more innocent people are being charged and dragged through the justice system unnecessarily. In the United States for example, there are 159 people per 100k detained and awaiting trial at any given time. With a conviction rate of approximately 85%, it means roughly 78,000 innocent people are being detained in US jails at all times. In Japan there are only 9 people per 100k detained. With a 99% conviction rate, it means about 115 innocent people are being held at any given time. Another major difference between Japan and other countries is that these 115 innocent people will automatically be entitled to claim financial compensation for any time spent in detention. That's not the case in the US and elsewhere.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

Nothing illegal about merging companies. If the trial has gone off topic then what is Kelly guilty of?

13 ( +13 / -0 )

The only question for the judge will be whether Kelly, Ghosn and Nissan knowingly misled shareholders by submitting inaccurate securities filings. The long and sensational backstory of how and why this drama unfolded is largely irrelevant to the question of Kelly's guilt or innocence.

Proof that the whole thing is a setup. This just further shows Ghosn's innocence

Let's assume that Ghosn was grossly underpaid, and that he did single-handedly save Nissan, and that other executives did secretly plot to oust him to advance their own careers, and that the Japanese government does hate foreign CEOs and wanted to maintain Japanese control of Nissan. Even if all of these claims are 100% true, none of them are a defense to the charges Kelly faces. None of them allow a company director to knowingly sign a securities filing that he knows to be inaccurate.

-11 ( +2 / -13 )

Backwards Japan

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Proof that the whole thing is a setup. This just further shows Ghosn's innocence and the length Japan Inc will go to ruin someone's life if they're a foreigner in Japan. A real wake up call and a warning to anyone wanting to work there

21 ( +27 / -6 )

Tokyo prosecutors have repeatedly said they have a case against both Kelly and Ghosn,

they keep saying they have a case.

11 ( +17 / -6 )

since Mr Kawaguchi loved Nissan so much, I wonder why he didn't save the company and cause it to thrive for 20 years, instead of 'allowing' Carlos Ghosn to do it.

26 ( +32 / -6 )

While this is all very interesting, I don't see what it has to do with Kelly's defense. His trial should be purely based on whether the compensation system for Ghosn he helped set up and sign off on was a crime because it wasn't reported. When I say it like that, seems like such an insignificant point on which to destroy a man's life.

30 ( +31 / -1 )

I think most of us here knew that the witch hunt was merely to protect Nissan to merge with a foreign company.

The “Tatemae” thing won’t work among the international community and press.

Japan in many aspects didn’t change it’s mentality from the Edo era even if we’re in 2021.

It is not a good country to make investments as a foreigner,or even accept high positions of responsibilities.

Because as a foreigner if you do your job too good you will end up like these people from the article.

14 ( +21 / -7 )

So Nissan hired a law firm to investigate the relationship between Ghson, Nissan and Renault, presumably to see if they could block the merger on technical grounds. That turned up nothing, so they went to plan B.

23 ( +29 / -6 )

Kelly, an American, was arrested with former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn in November 2018 

it’s now 2021, it takes 3years to go to trail?

My only goal was to protect Nissan,” Kawaguchi told the court when questioned by the defense. “I want to protect Nissan. I love Nissan. Ghosn had other intentions.”

Sorry it’s a company and as much love as you feel, it’s an entity that will never love you back.

Kelly’s trial opened in September and a verdict is not expected for months. More than 99% of Japan’s criminal trials result in convictions. so he has a 1% chance, How long do these dumb wits need?

Nissan as a corporate entity is a defendant in the same trial, but has acknowledged guilt, objecting only to questioning by Kelly’s defense team.

they object to being questioned???

What the hell?

this is beyond a farce?

29 ( +37 / -8 )

And there you have!

Unequivocal confirmation that this was never about Ghosn's alleged wrongdoing.

Rather, it was about preventing an integration of Nissan into Renault!

It was about "saving" Nissan from the foreigners!

Everything that followed was merely a mechanism to ensure Nissan remained "Japanese"!

Whether Ghosn did something wrong or not was never the point! Ousting him WAS the goal!!

33 ( +41 / -8 )

It was pretty clear from the start that this was a Japanese political hit job conducted to prevent Nissan from being taken over by a foreign company.

They went after Ghosn on a technicality, and treated both him and Kelly totally inappropriately compared to the allegations against them.

38 ( +47 / -9 )

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