World News | Ex-Nissan Exec Says Automaker Sought to Hide Ghosn's Pay
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A former Nissan chief operating officer outlined in a Japanese court Tuesday the pains company officials took to hide star executive Carlos Ghosn's pay, and how they had worried about his quitting for a rival.
Tokyo, Jan 12 (AP) A former Nissan chief operating officer outlined in a Japanese court Tuesday the pains company officials took to hide star executive Carlos Ghosn's pay, and how they had worried about his quitting for a rival.
“Carlos Ghosn is a world-class business leader and CEO,” said Toshiyuki Shiga, testifying at the trial of his former colleague Greg Kelly, charged with under-reporting Ghosn's compensation.
“We heard not only as rumors but as fact that he was getting job offers,” Shiga added.
As No 2 at the Japanese automaker from 2005-2013, Shiga is the highest ranking Nissan Motor Co. executive to testify at the trial, which began in September. He worked closely with Ghosn after Nissan's French alliance partner Renault sent him to Japan to help turn the troubled automaker around in 1999. Shiga retired from Nissan in 2019.
The issue of Ghosn's pay became more of a problem after Japan beefed up its compensation disclosure requirements in 2010.
After that, Ghosn handed back about 1 billion yen (USD 10 million) a year, roughly half of what he'd been getting.
Executives in Japan get far less than their Western counterparts. Shiga testified he felt sorry Ghosn wasn't collecting his full pay, noting Ghosn was getting job offers paying 2.5 billion yen (USD 25 million) a year.
Earlier testimony at the Tokyo District Court had gone over the various proposals that Nissan had considered to pay Ghosn, including overseas affiliates, retirement allowances and stock options.
Shiga said Ghosn had total power to decide on the amount and method of his payment. Apart from confirming a post that Kelly had held he did not mention the American's role in his testimony. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)