Risk register · entry
Q-F · FraudCarlos Ghosn / Nissan compensation case
Nissan's celebrated savior was charged with under-reporting $140M in deferred pay. He fled Japan in an audio-gear case before any trial.
The fifth quadrant, where the thing was never real. The tell is that the story is too clean.
Why this quadrant
The defect was in the representation rather than in any operating system. Per the SEC, Nissan's filings concealed more than 140 million dollars of compensation and retirement benefits arranged for its chief executive, using secret contracts, backdated letters and a recalculated pension formula worth more than 50 million. The corporate findings are established: Nissan was convicted in Japan and fined, and Nissan, Ghosn and Kelly settled the SEC charges without admitting or denying them. Ghosn fled before trial, so the criminal allegations against him remain untested.
The record
- The SEC's September 2019 action alleged that Nissan's public filings concealed more than $140 million of compensation and retirement benefits promised to Carlos Ghosn, a sum that was never actually paid out to him.certain
- Within that total, the SEC alleged Ghosn schemed to conceal more than $90 million of pay and had his pension recalculated to generate over $50 million in additional benefits.certain
- The SEC matter settled on 23 September 2019 with a $15 million civil penalty for Nissan, $1 million and a 10-year officer-and-director bar for Ghosn, and $100,000 plus a 5-year bar for Greg Kelly, all without any admission or finding of wrongdoing.certain
- In Japan, prosecutors alleged Ghosn under-reported about 9.3 billion yen (roughly $80 million) of compensation over a decade; Nissan the company was fined 200 million yen (about $1.73 million), and in March 2022 Greg Kelly received a six-month suspended sentence, convicted on one year's worth of counts and acquitted on the rest.certain
- Ghosn left Japan on 29 December 2019 concealed inside a large box presented as audio equipment, boarded a private jet at Kansai airport and reached Lebanon via Turkey; Michael Taylor was later sentenced to two years and Peter Taylor to one year and eight months, with prosecutors stating Ghosn paid them $1.3 million.certain
Sources
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