The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission on Tuesday called on the Financial Services Agency to impose a fine of ¥2,424.89 million on Nissan Motor Co. for understating executive pay for former boss Carlos Ghosn in its securities reports.
The special investigation unit of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has indicted Ghosn, former chairman of the Japanese automaker, for a series of alleged financial misconduct, including the underreporting of his pay.
The penalty will be the second largest meted out in connection with falsified securities reports, after the some ¥7.3 billion recommended for Toshiba Corp. in 2015 over accounting irregularities.
Fines worth some ¥4 billion were to be imposed on Nissan, but the sum was reduced after Nissan voluntarily reported its violations before the start of the SESC’s investigation for administrative punishments and applied for a cut in the penalty.
According to the SESC, Ghosn and Nissan understated his executive pay in the company’s securities reports for fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2017. The automaker solicited buyers for corporate bonds based on falsified documents and had investors buy the securities.
(Published by Japan News, December 11, 2019)
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