Beijing: Nissan Motor Co has asked its staff to refrain from any communications with jailed directors Carlos Ghosn and Greg Kelly and their lawyers as Japanese prosecutors investigate the officials at the centre of a scandal about under-reporting of pay.
Employees were asked not to get in touch on their own and not to respond if contacted, according to an internal memo Nissan wrote to its employees. Nissan staff should immediately report the contact or attempted contact to the company’s legal department, according to the notice.
Meanwhile, Kelly was granted bail on Tuesday, making way for his potential release after spending more than a month in jail. The Tokyo District Court set Kelly’s bail at 70 million yen ($635,000; Dh2.32 million), according to the Tokyo prosecutors’ office. The decision to grant bail was appealed by prosecutors, leaving open the question of when Kelly might be released.
On Friday, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa sought to reassure staff that the carmaker is addressing corporate governance shortcomings. The same day, Japanese prosecutors re-arrested Nissan’s former chairman Ghosn on fresh, more serious allegations of financial misconduct, dealing a blow to the car titan’s efforts to end his month-long stay in jail and seek bail.
The Ghosn drama, which has been escalating and shocked the world, raised questions about Nissan’s corporate governance, with the allegations spanning at least a decade.
The car titan and Nissan were indicted on December 10 for falsifying securities reports which under-reported his income by tens of millions of dollars. Ghosn has denied the allegations.
