TOKYO – Former Nissan director Greg Kelly, cleared on most counts and handed a suspended sentence in the long-running Tokyo trial over alleged financial misconduct by Carlos Ghosn, was welcomed back to Tennessee today by U.S. Sen. William Hagerty, who praised Kelly for building bridges between Japan and the U.S.
Hagerty, who was U.S. ambassador to Japan at the time of Kelly’s arrest in 2018, greeted Kelly and his wife Dee as they returned to Nashville, where Kelly built a career working for Nissan’s North American operations, climbing the ranks to eventually be a director at the parent company.
“He’s helped build the economic alliance between the United States and Japan for decades. He’s had an incredible career at one of the most important companies here in Tennessee, a company that has built its presence here and employs thousands of Tennesseans,” Hagerty said.
“Greg was looking forward to his retirement from that storied career, and unfortunately, his retirement was cut short,” Hagerty said. “It took over three years to get him home.”
Kelly, speaking Monday at an airport conference room with the U.S. colors and Tennessee state flag behind him, praised the Senate Republican for his support during his Japan legal battle.
As ambassador, Hagerty helped arrange delivery of warm clothes to Kelly during his December lockup in a cold Tokyo jail and helped expedite his release on bail for neck surgery, Kelly said.
“Words can’t really adequately describe how grateful we are for everything he has done for us,” Kelly said of Hagerty, who left the Tokyo diplomatic mission in 2019 to run for the Senate in 2020.
“There’s no place like home,” said Kelly.
Kelly, 65, went on to describe the allegations against him as an internal corporate matter that Nissan Motor Co. should have handled in the board room, not by going to prosecutors.
“My prosecution was a direct result of a coup engineered by a few senior Japanese executives to oust Carlos Ghosn, because they didn’t want Renault, a French car company, to merge with Nissan,” Kelly said. “It was an issue that should have been resolved by Nissan’s board.”
After a 17-month trial before the Tokyo District Court, Kelly was found guilty March 3 of aiding Ghosn, the former Chairman of Nissan and Renault, during just one of eight years under scrutiny by prosecutors. Kelly was cleared of any wrongdoing in the other seven years.
A three-judge panel gave Kelly a six-month suspended sentence.
Under the terms of Kelly’s suspended sentence, the Tennessee lawyer and former human resources executive was allowed to return to the U.S.
Kelly’s defense team has filed an appeal against the guilty verdict, insisting on full vindication for their client. Meanwhile, Tokyo prosecutors are weighing their own appeal.
The appeals process is expected to last another year.
Prosecutors accused Ghosn and Kelly of hiding some 9.3 billion yen ($80.5 million) in postponed compensation from 2010 to 2018. Both men, arrested the same day in 2018, deny wrongdoing.
But after Ghosn fled Japan for Lebanon in 2019, Kelly was left to fight the charges alone.