Ghosn case: Tokyo prosecutors appeal suspended sentence of Greg Kelly

TOKYO — Tokyo prosecutors filed an appeal on Wednesday against the verdict in the trial of former Nissan executive Greg Kelly. The court gave him a six-month sentence suspended for three years earlier this month after finding him guilty of under-reporting former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s pay.

Here’s what we know:

    • The prosecutor's office “filed an appeal” against Kelly, it announced in a statement read by AFP. The American lawyer, now 65, was arrested in Japan on the same day as Ghosn in 2018, and on the same charge: failing to declare compensation to Japanese financial authorities for years.

    •Prosecutors accused Kelly of helping Ghosn to conceal from the authorities ¥9.1 billion yen, about €70 million, during the period of 2010-2018.

    • However, in its verdict on March 3, the Tokyo court found him guilty only in the 2017/18 fiscal year, and therefore sentenced him to a much lighter sentence than the prosecutors requested. Kelly, who had pleaded not guilty, also appealed. He said he was “extremely surprised and shocked” by his conviction.

    • Nissan, tried in this trial as a legal person, pleaded guilty. The Japanese car manufacturer was fined ¥200 million, or €1.6 million.