Nissan arrests: Greg Kelly released on bail
Greg Kelly, the Nissan Motor director arrested along with former chairman Carlos Ghosn, was freed from jail, with a court granting him bail after spending more than a month in a Tokyo detention centre.
The Tokyo District Court set Mr Kelly’s bail at ¥70 million yen (Dh2.33m), according to the Tokyo prosecutors’ office. He was arrested on November 19 and was indicted for allegedly helping the car titan under-report his compensation by tens of millions of dollars. Both Mr Ghosn and Mr Kelly have denied the charges through their lawyers.
“Today I returned to the outside world after making bail,” Mr Kelly said in a statement provided by his lawyer to NHK, which was broadcast in Japanese. “I look forward to receiving a court judgment of innocence, restoring my name, and returning to my family as soon as possible.”
Japanese prosecutors lost an appeal against the granting of bail, allowing the American to leave jail late yesterday evening. His departure from the detention centre in a taxi, with helicopters and motorcycles following, was televised by local media including NHK.
The court has set conditions for the bail, including a ban on leaving Japan, according to media reports. He is not allowed to get in touch with people involved in the allegations, and needs to live at an address approved by the court.
Mr Kelly’s release will help him mount a defence from outside the court while Mr Ghosn remains in jail. The former chairman was re-arrested last week for a more serious allegation that he transferred his personal trading loss to Nissan in 2008. Mr Kelly was not included in the additional charge.
Mr Ghosn will be detained until January 1 over the new allegation, the Tokyo District Court said on Sunday. His confinement could be extended for another 10 days after that. The handling of the two men’s cases has cast scrutiny on Japan’s justice system, which allows prosecutors to hold those suspected of crimes for weeks without charges.
Mr Ghosn’s lawyer challenged the latest allegations that the former chairman transferred personal financial losses to Nissan and said his actions did not constitute a breach of faith.
The Japanese car maker has called Mr Kelly, a Nissan veteran and the only American to serve on its board, a mastermind of a criminal plot to under-report his boss’s income, and has asked its staff to refrain from any communications with Mr Ghosn and Mr Kelly and their lawyers.
Dee Kelly, wife of the Nissan director, said in a video released through a lawyer on Sunday that her husband is “a man of honour and integrity” who “holds himself to the highest ethical standards.” She reiterated that he had done nothing wrong and said he’d been “caught up in an international plot by some at Nissan to take control.”
Inside Nissan, Mr Kelly was known as the CEO whisperer: The chief of staff who would deliver the most delicate messages to Mr Ghosn, and the man the chairman would count on to enforce his directives.