Japan: Greg Kelly, ex-assistant of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan, escapes a heavy sentence

Tokyo

“We almost won.

»

On leaving the Tokyo court on Thursday, Daisuke Fujiwara, a young lawyer who is part of the defense team of American Greg Kelly, had the joy and the pain of the sportsman who came close to a feat.

Three and a half years after being arrested with Carlos Ghosn in a resounding dragnet, the former right-hand man of the former president of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors Alliance has indeed been sentenced for having participated in an attempt to concealment of remuneration from his boss.

But Judge Kenji Shimotsu reached this verdict by rejecting much of the prosecution's case, which related to events between 2010 and 2018 and therefore did not follow his recommendation of a two-year sentence. from prison.

Greg Kelly finally gets a six-month suspended sentence,

Read alsoFirst meeting between Carlos Ghosn and French justice

As soon as he was arrested with Carlos Ghosn, the prosecutors had, through the media and then in court, defended the thesis of collusion between the two men and the Japanese executor Toshiaki Ohnuma.

The testimony of the latter who, in exchange for his confession, escaped prosecution, was a fundamental piece of the prosecution.

But it turned out to be very fragile: the statements of a character who was not so neutral, whose memory was not necessarily reliable (some of the facts reported took place ten years ago), collected under pressure from the prosecutors and in the absence other testimonies and supporting documents were viewed with great skepticism by the judge.

of the file, explained Kenji Shimotsu about his method.

Lodge an appeal

The latter still offered himself the luxury of judging Carlos Ghosn, so to speak in abstentia.

For Kenji Shimotsu, and this time in full agreement with the general thesis of the prosecutors, the ex-leader, still a refugee in Beirut since his spectacular escape in early January 2020, was indeed for years the authorizing officer of double accounting , held to the nearest yen, in anticipation of deferred compensation to be paid after his retirement.

This system, well documented, was put in place

under the beard of the shareholders of the manufacturer, castigated the judge, rejecting the defense of Carlos Ghosn and Greg Kelly according to which these amounts were simple elements of reference without consequence, which did not have to be disclosed.

There is no doubt that Carlos Ghosn would have been severely condemned if he had remained in Japan.

Nissan did not escape the ire of the judge either, castigating a

which allowed its former leader his accounting indelicacies.

For its negligence, the manufacturer was ordered to pay a fine of 200 million yen (1.6 million euros).

Read alsoHow Carlos Ghosn's exfiltration accomplices were delivered to Japan

The decision did not satisfy either party.

Nor Greg Kelly, who said he was surprised by the verdict and announced that he intended to appeal.

Neither the prosecutors, who are also thinking about it after such a disavowal.

But it at least offers the American the possibility of finally leaving Japan, which may make Thursday's hearing the last of this extraordinary trial.

,” hastened to declare, as soon as the decision was announced, the new United States Ambassador, Rahm Emmanuel.

, opines Daisuke Fujiwara.

," admitted Dee, Kelly's wife, at the end of the hearing.

In rendering his verdict, the judge lamented that he had not found

, virtues prized by the local courts, in the accused.

A few days before the verdict, Greg Kelly, in fact, declared himself convinced of his innocence.

On Thursday, we also sought in vain for the doubts or questioning of Japanese prosecutors after arresting a man on November 19, 2018, detaining him for five weeks and keeping him in Japan for 1,200 days for charges, most of which had just been swept away.