TOKYO – His boss, Carlos Ghosn, escaped monetary misconduct fees by fleeing the country, but former Nissan executive is still awaiting trial in Japan: Greg Kelly.
Kelly’s trial in Tokyo District Court is scheduled to begin on September 15, nearly two years after his arrest, and the same day he will turn 64.face a decade in prison.
Even when he was acquitted, he already paid a high price, was unable to leave Japan and return to Tennessee while on bail.He’s still noticed his newborn grandson.His wife received a student visa to stay with him in Tokyo.
Kelly, like Ghosn, says he’s innocent.
Tokyo prosecutors allege that Kelly and Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan Motor Co., violated monetary policy by underestimating Ghosn’s salary of roughly nine billion yen ($ 85 million) between 2011 and 2018.
Jamie Wareham, Kelly’s lawyer in the United States, says a refund agreement has never been finalized.He believes the real reason was a “corporate coup” to expel Ghosn through others at Nissan who feared he might arrange an acquisition through his partner in the French Alliance.Renault.
“The matter is a fraud,” Wareham told The Associated Press over the phone.
Ghosn may have been a star witness to the defense, but he left, having fled to Lebanon late last year, hiding in a box aboard a personal jet.
“He’s frustrated. He’s upset,” Wareham said of Kelly.” It has been abused from the beginning through the Japanese system.”
Nissan’s U.S. department hired Kelly, who holds a law degree, in 1988; he became managing director in 2012, the first American on Nissan’s board of directors.Kelly worked in the company’s legal and human resources consultancy.He was arrested in November 2018, upon his arrival from the United States to Japan, thinking of attending Nissan meetings.
Kelly has not been charged with accusations of non-compliance with accepting Ghosn as true, in connection with Nissan’s alleged use of cash for non-public purposes, adding luxury homes. Ghosn’s lawyers argued that houses were mandatory for work, arguing that these problems may have arisen internally within the company and did not require prosecution.
Tokyo Deputy Chief Prosecutor Hiroshi Yamamoto said preparations for Kelly’s trial have taken a long time due to the sheer amount of evidence involved.
“We have a solid case with a lot of evidence to get a guilty verdict,” Yamamoto recently told reporters.
Wareham, Kelly’s lawyer, said prosecutors sent a billion pages of documents, usually in English, that can only be tested on a computer in the Tokyo legal team office.They haven’t delivered more than 70 7-inch boxes yet.filled with curtains marked as evidence, just two weeks before the trial began.
Kelly’s remedy was unfair, Wareham said, but he is convinced that Kelly will be justified because he is so “clearly innocent,” he said.
Nissan has been charged as a company, and Nissan and Kelly will try together.Nissan pleaded guilty and made adjustments to refund claims.He fined 2.4 billion yen ($22.6 million), but still faces similar charges.
In a trial that is expected to last about a year, Nissan employees, adding former Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, are expected to testify with prosecutors.Saikawa replaced Ghosn but resigned last year on his own accusations of monetary misconduct.Loaded.
Japan is also seeking the extradition of two Americans, Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor, pursued for trafficking with Ghosn outdoors in Japan, who are being held in a Massachusetts criminal without bail.
Ghosn has criticized Japan’s judicial system and called it a “hostage justice.”
This is a widespread complaint given that the conviction rate exceeds 99%. Suspects are burned through the police or prosecutors without the presence of a lawyer and detained for months before the trial, a practice that critics say leads to false confessions and lacks the presumption of innocence.
At the heart of the entire Ghosn saga is the tendency of Japanese executives to charge less than their Western counterparts, while painting more in the paintings of “salary” groups than as tough executives.
In 2010, when Japan began publicly publicize individual executive compensation, Ghosn’s $9.5 million annual salary surprised everyone.
Ghosn defended his higher-than-usual salary as he deserved for what he had achieved at Nissan, leading his recovery from breaking point after being sent through Renault in 1999.
Since Japan has an extradition treaty with Lebanon, Ghosn is unlikely to ever be tried, but his legacy at Nissan is likely to overshadow Kelly’s trial.
“My prayers turn to Greg Kelly and his circle of relatives who are still trapped in Japan’s hostage justice system,” Ghosn said in a tweet earlier this year.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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