A Japanese court yesterday approved a bail request for former Nissan Motor Co representative director Greg Kelly, who was detained and charged with underreporting the income of his boss, former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn.
Kelly is to be released on ￥70 million (US$635,600) bail, the Tokyo District Court said.
The money was paid by cash and the American’s release could have come before the end of the day, after 37 days in custody.
Kelly and Ghosn have been detained in Tokyo since their arrests on Nov. 19. They are charged with underreporting Ghosn’s pay by about ￥5 billion from 2011 to 2015.
Kelly’s Japanese lawyer sought bail after the court dismissed prosecutors’ request for more detention for the two to investigate their second allegation of underreporting Ghosn’s ￥4 billion pay.
Charges for an underreporting allegation in more recent years are pending and no trial date has been set.
Ghosn would be detained until Jan. 1 or longer, since he also faces breach of trust allegations.
Prosecutors say that Ghosn and Kelly are flight risks.
They challenged the court approval of Kelly’s bail and if that is again denied by the court, Kelly could have been released later yesterday and gone to a hospital for treatment on his neck, Japanese media said.
He would have to follow conditions set by the court, including restrictions on travel, place of residence and meeting with Nissan officials.
The arrests have triggered international attention and raised concerns about the Japanese practice of extended detentions.
Nissan has removed Kelly as representative director and Ghosn as chairman, but they are still on the company’s board. The board of Renault SA, the French ally of Nissan, has retained him while naming an interim chair, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp took a measure similar to Nissan.
Kelly, 62, joined Nissan North American in 1988 and worked in legal counsel and human resources at the company, and has been a member of the automaker’s board since 2012.
His US lawyer, Aubrey Harwell, has said he is innocent and that he only acted according to the law and company policy.
Ghosn has also denied the allegations and told lawyers that he is determined to prove his innocence in court, Japanese media reported.
The scandal also raised concerns over the Japanese automaker and the future of its alliance with Renault, which in 1999 sent Ghosn to turn around Nissan. He has since led Nissan’s rise to the world’s second-largest automaker.
Ghosn’s downfall is seen by some as a maneuver by others at Nissan to gain power in the alliance.
Kelly’s wife, Donna Kelly, urged the Japanese authorities for her husband’s early release in a video message carried yesterday by Japan’s NHK public television and other networks.
She said that her husband was “framed” by Nissan and that he also should be released to get his neck treated.
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