November 20, 2018

Japan’s prosecutors on November 19 arrested Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn for underreporting his compensation in the company’s financial reports.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office says that although Ghosn was paid by Nissan nearly 10 billion yen in total, he reported that the amount of his compensation was a little less than five billion yen.

Nissan officials at a press conference held on the day said that internal investigations found multiple serious misconducts by Ghosn, including the false entries in the financial reports as well as the use of company money for his own interests. They added that the board of directors will discuss the removal of Ghosn.

Ghosn became the Nissan president in 2000 and has served also as the chairman since 2003. According to the Nissan financial reports, the amount of his remuneration was 891 million yen in the 2009 business year ending March 2010 and stood at more than 900 million yen in the following three years. The figure exceeded one billion in 2014-2016 and decreased to 735 million yen in 2017 due to the revelation of a scandal concerning inappropriate inspections of new cars at Nissan factories.

Ghosn in 2005 assumed the office of the president of the French automaker Renault. He has also served as the chairman of Mitsubishi Motors since 2016 and was paid 227 million yen in 2017 from the company.

Past related articles:
> Local labor relations authority recognizes Nissan Motor's unfair labor practice [February 28, 2018]
> Number of executives paid more than one hundred million-yen hits record high under Abenomics [July 5, 2016]