Former Nissan Exec Greg Kelly Receives Suspended Sentence in Ghosn Case

The subject of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn’s incarceration and eventual escape from Japanese officials is one of those weird, almost larger-than-life stories, and that makes it easy to forget that frequently other people get caught up in a whirlwind. Take, for example, former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who got busted on a business trip to Japan on charges that he helped Ghosn hide more than $80 million.

Now, though, some three years of prosecution later, it looks like the ride is over for Kelly, according to an Automotive News report Wednesday. Chief Judge Kenji Shimotsu gave Kelly a six-month suspended sentence after he was found guilty of not properly disclosing Ghosn’s income in one of the eight years that the investigation covered.

Kelly may soon be allowed to leave Japan and return to his home in the US, but both he and his lawyers maintain that he is entirely innocent of all charges and may try to appeal Shimotsu’s ruling. Conversely, the prosecution is unhappy that most of the charges were dismissed because a critical witness was deemed unreliable after making a plea deal to avoid jail time. They, too, are allegedly planning to appeal the judge’s decision, though that appeal wouldn’t prevent Kelly from returning to the US.

In addition to Kelly’s sentence, the judge also fined Nissan the equivalent of $1.73 million for its role in allowing false financial statements to be filed.

We asked Nissan for comment but didn’t hear back in time for publication.

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