(Bloomberg) -- Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers said the prosecutor’s case against the fallen car executive is flawed, ramping up their defense of the ousted Nissan Motor Co. chairman following his indictment for financial crimes in Japan.
On Monday, Tokyo prosecutors indicted Ghosn for understating his income, charges they’ve said previously could put him in jail for at least 10 years. While the prosecutors didn’t provide further detail on the substance of their case, the pay Ghosn is said to have deferred until his retirement so that it doesn’t fall under reporting rules is said to be a focus.
Ghosn’s lawyers say the charge that Ghosn helped himself by converting compensation to deferred pay is flawed because the compensation agreement wasn’t properly ratified, according to a statement by the office of Motonari Otsuru, Ghosn’s lawyer, and provided to Bloomberg News.
Nissan, which removed Ghosn as chairman three days after his arrest, declined to comment. “Inquiries related to criminal charges should be made to the Prosecutors office,” the company said.
Ghosn was indicted Monday, three weeks after he was detained in Tokyo with Nissan saying the 64-year-old understated his income and used company money for personal purposes. In the first sign of blowback from the scandal for Nissan, the company was also indicted for breaching Japan’s financial instruments and exchange law by under-reporting Ghosn’s compensation.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kae Inoue in Tokyo at kinoue@bloomberg.net;Ma Jie in Tokyo at jma124@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson
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