Ghosn says the global financial crisis has pushed him to collect half of his salary after his retirement

TOKYO – Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman, Carlos Ghosn, suspected of under-reporting his annual compensation of 2 billion yen, said the financial crisis caused by the collapse of the giant American investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 had motivated him to collect half of his retirement pay, those who know the subject have disclosed.

Ghosn, 64, arrested on suspicion of violation of the Financial Instruments and Foreign Exchange Law, apparently also told Tokyo prosecutors that if employees knew he was receiving such compensation, they would lose their enthusiasm to the idea of ​​working.

In fiscal 2009, a system was put in place, requiring companies to identify members of the board whose annual compensation is at least 100 million yen. This apparently prompted Ghosn and Greg Kelly, 62, Nissan's representative at the time, to decide that the then president would receive half of his annual salary of 2 billion yen after his retirement, according to reports. people close to the file.

Ghosn reportedly told prosecutors that he had made that decision in part because of the temporary deterioration in the company's performance following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, according to relatives of the company. investigation.

During his interrogation by a special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office, he apparently alleged that he was not obliged to report his remuneration in his annual financial reports, knowing that He was not sure he could collect this income given the current economic climate. time.

Regarding allegations of free use of residences that Nissan provided him with in six countries, Ghosn told a person who had met him in a detention center that he had also used these houses for commercial purposes.

Regarding the suspicion that he had transferred some 1.7 billion yen in 2008 for his personal investment losses to Nissan, Ghosn said he was considering doing so, but did not carry it out.

Motonari Otsuru, former head of the special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Attorney's Office, is the lawyer of the former president of Nissan. Kelly, meanwhile, hired Yoichi Kitamura, who played a pivotal role in the acquittal of the accused during a widely publicized murder committed in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

(Original Japanese Kenji Tatsumi, Kazuhiro Toyama and Kim Suyeong, City News Department)