American on trial in Japan gets support from ex-boss Ghosn

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has backed American lawyer Greg Kelly's insistence he is innocent of any wrongdoing

TOKYO -- Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has backed his former colleague American lawyer Greg Kelly’s insistence he is innocent of any wrongdoing. Ghosn said in an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday that Kelly, a former Nissan executive vice president, had sought only legal methods to arrange post-retirement compensation for his boss. Kelly was arrested at the same time as Ghosn in Tokyo in November 2018 and is charged with falsifying securities reports. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. Ghosn fled Japan in late 2019. Testimony and documents presented at Kelly’s trial have shown that he sought ways to beef up compensation for Ghosn after he agreed to a pay cut at Nissan in 2010, when Japan began requiring disclosures of high executive pay. Ghosn insisted Tuesday that no additional compensation agreements were approved by the board.