Prosecutors in Japan has on Monday, charged former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn with under-reporting his income by around £35 million. An executive of Nissan Greg Kelly was also charged for helping Ghosn.
Ghosn was arrested on November 19, over casting doubts on the future of Nissan’s alliance with Renault and is going to be facing another 20 days in detention after the prosecutors has charged him and Kelly.
Ghosn was sacked from his designations and with Kelly’s help, he figured out to hide about £35 million in income over a period of time of five years till March 2015.
However, on Monday, prosecutors charged both Ghosn and Kelly for continues action of understating the pay through to the March, 2018, with an increasing amount by 4bn yen.
The move by Japan’s prosecutors could add this case to international criticism and might both of them remain in the custody for at least until this year ends. The scandal turned to a further twist on Monday, when prosecutors charged them for filing a false financial statements.
A former prosecutor and a lawyer Nobuo Gohara said, “Normally, if it’s falsifying the financial filings, the company as well as the perpetrator is charged. That’s not surprising. It’s to be expected.”
Gohara further said, “Now suddenly the issue of CEO Saikawa becomes bigger. It becomes difficult to overlook Saikawa’s role in all of this. That becomes the main focus now.”
In an official statement, Nissan said: “Takes this situation extremely seriously. Making false disclosures in annual securities reports greatly harms the integrity of Nissan’s public disclosures in the securities markets, and the company expresses its deepest regret.”
The statement further stated: “Nissan will continue its efforts to strengthen its governance and compliance, including making accurate disclosures of corporate information.”
According to news reports, both Ghosn and Kelly have not spoken or issued any statement regarding the charges but denied all the allegations put up by prosecutors.