TOKYO — A clique of Nissan colleagues worked secretly to investigate their chairman at the time, Carlos Ghosn, before taking their findings directly to prosecutors, a witness testified this month in the Tokyo trial of former Nissan director Greg Kelly.
Hidetoshi Imazu, Nissan Motor Co.’s statutory auditor at the time and the man who initiated the probe into potential misconduct, said he began looking into matters concerning Ghosn’s travel expenses in July 2017, more than a year before the chairman’s arrest in Japan.
Imazu, now retired, also said he went to authorities with little forethought about possible fallout for the company or its shareholders. The ensuing scandal triggered a massive slide in Nissan’s market capitalization and rattled relations with French partner Renault.
Testifying last week in Tokyo District Court, Imazu said his probe picked up speed in March 2018 and eventually expanded to look into corporate outlays for Ghosn’s housing and other expenses.
Imazu said he took his findings to the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office on June 16, 2018, to get its read on whether anything illegal had occurred. According to Imazu, prosecutors told him that those financial matters probably didn’t rise to the level of criminality, but the auditor should keep on digging.
Imazu said prosecutors also urged him to keep the probe under the radar from the rest of the company for fear that leaks would spur guilty parties to dispose of evidence.
The testimony sheds new light on a key question in the Ghosn takedown: How could such a small group of executives go rogue, apparently delivering their boss to authorities all by themselves?
Supporting Imazu in the effort was executive Hitoshi Kawaguchi, then senior vice president in Nissan auditor kept Carlos Ghosn probe secret