Nissan Motor Co should be fined US$22 million for filing documents that underreported the compensation of former chief executive Carlos Ghosn, Japanese regulators said yesterday, with the troubled firm saying it would not dispute the penalty.
The Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission made the recommendation as Ghosn, who was arrested in November last year, awaits trial in Tokyo on four charges of financial misconduct.
Among the allegations against him are claims that he underreported his compensation from 2010 to last year, deferring some of his pay and failing to declare it to shareholders.
Photo: AP
Ghosn denies all the charges against him and has argued there was no final agreement on any deferred payments.
Ghosn’s lawyers said that the allegations are a result of trumped up charges rooted in a conspiracy among Nissan executives, Japanese government officials and prosecutors to oust Ghosn to prevent a fuller merger with French alliance partner Renault SA.
Nissan also faces charges over the alleged underreporting of Ghosn’s income.
The commission in a statement issued yesterday said that it had “examined the false descriptions in securities reports and other documents at Nissan Motors and, as a result, a legislative breach was recognized.”
“Therefore, we advise the [Japanese] prime minister and the head of the Financial Services Agency to issue an order that fines be paid,” the statement said.
The fine covers underreporting between financial years 2014 and 2017, the commission said.
Nissan said in a statement that it took the recommendation “extremely seriously” and would “consider its response” after receiving a formal notice from the agency.
“In the absence of any special circumstances or other reasons, the company intends not to dispute the alleged facts and the amount of the administrative monetary penalty,” Nissan said.
Nissan’s sales and profits have tumbled, and its brand image has been tarnished over the Ghosn scandal.
The automaker has struggled to right itself after the shock arrest of Ghosn last year, replacing its chief executive and slashing full-year forecasts.
No date has yet been set for Ghosn’s trial, although reports suggest the proceedings could begin in April on the charges of underreporting his compensation and using company funds for personal expenses.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
RSS