Japan's financial regulators said Friday they ordered Nissan Motor Co. to pay 2.42 billion yen ($22 million) in fines for underreporting remuneration of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn and other executives for years.
The fine is the second highest imposed by the Financial Services Agency, only behind that of 7.37 billion yen in 2015 on Toshiba Corp. for falsifying financial reports.
The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended in December that the FSA fine Nissan the amount after filing a criminal complaint against the automaker and Ghosn in 2018.
The securities watchdog alleged they violated the financial instruments law by underreporting Ghosn's pay package by around 9.1 billion yen in the eight years through March 2018.
But the former chairman fled to Lebanon in late December from Japan, where he was on bail awaiting trial on charges of underreporting of remuneration at Nissan and misuse of funds. He has denied all the charges.
The latest fine targets the company's underreported remuneration of its executives for four years through March 2018, for which the statute of limitations has not expired.
Nissan said the same day it will "take the decision sincerely."
The penalty for Nissan was initially expected to reach 4 billion yen, based on the amount of pay left out of submitted documents, but the company asked the watchdog for a reduction in the fine since it reported the matter before an investigation got fully under way. The SESC accepted Nissan's request.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - US securities regulators on Monday charged Japanese automaker Nissan and its former CEO Carlos Ghosn with hiding more than $140 million in Ghosn's expected retirement income from investors.
Ghosn will pay $1 million in fines to settle the matter and will be barred from serving as a corporate executive for 10 years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.
Nissan will pay a $15 million fine.
The SEC also charged ex-board member Greg Kelly with aiding in the fraud. He agreed to a $100,000 fine and a five-year corporate officer ban.
But Ghosn, his former right-hand man Kelly, and Nissan neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations.
Attorneys for Ghosn welcomed the deal, saying it allowed him to focus on fighting similar allegations in Japan.
The SEC said Ghosn, 65, working with Kelly and other subordinates, devised ways to disguise large amounts of Ghosn's compensation.
The machinations allegedly stemmed from a shift in Japanese policy in 2009 that required disclosure of individual director compensation above 100 million yen, a little more than $1 million at the time.
"Ghosn became concerned about criticism that might result in the Japanese and French media if his total compensation became publicly known," the SEC said.
Ghosn directed subordinates to lobby the Japanese government to rescind the policy.
When that failed, "Ghosn and Nissan subordinates took steps to conceal from public disclosure a substantial portion of Ghosn's compensation," the SEC order said.
Ghosn and Kelly allegedly "fraudulently inflated" Ghosn's pension allowance by more than $50 million and created a "false disclosure" to disguise the increase, the SEC said in an order.
Subordinates of Ghosn falsely told the company's chief financial officer that another big set of payments under a long-term incentive plan went to many Nissan employees and not primarily to Ghosn, the order said.
Ghosn also instructed an employee to change the currency in which Ghosn's pension would be paid.
Under a 2007 compensation agreement, Ghosn was to be paid in yen, but a 2011 clause allowed Ghosn to choose whether to be paid in yen or US dollars, resulting in an increase of about $22 million in retirement payments, the SEC said.
"Investors are entitled to know how, and how much, a company compensates its top executives," said Stephanie Avakian, co-director of enforcement at the SEC. "Ghosn and Kelly went to great lengths to conceal this information from investors and the market."
Ghosn's legal team underscored Monday that the settlement involved no legal finding against him.
GHOSN 'SATISFIED'
"We are satisfied with the conclusion of this agreement in the United States," said a statement from his attorneys, noting no court had found that Ghosn committed "punishable acts."
"The settlement specifically allows Mr Ghosn to continue to fight the allegations against him in Japan, which Mr Ghosn intends to pursue vigorously," it said, expressing confidence he will eventually be acquitted.
He is awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting millions of dollars in salary and of using company funds for personal expenses. News reports in Japan have said hearings will begin in April.
Following his arrest last November in Japan, Ghosn denied wrongdoing and accused Nissan executives of plotting against him, claiming they opposed his plans to further integrate the firm with France's Renault.
Avakian also said Nissan had misrepresented Ghosn's pension allowance to investors, a move that "advanced Ghosn and Kelly's deceptions and misled investors, including US investors."
The SEC order in the Nissan settlement also cited the car company's "significant cooperation" with US officials and corporate governance changes implemented in the wake of the scandal.
These included having the board's compensation committee composed entirely of outside directors and making more of the company secretary's decisions subject to audit and internal controls.
"Nissan is firmly committed to continuing to further cultivate robust corporate governance," the company said in a statement.
The settlement came as the Wall Street Journal reported that Nissan's general counsel Ravinder Passi raised doubts on whether an internal probe at Nissan into Ghosn was tainted by conflicts of interests, clouding the carmaker's efforts to move beyond the scandal.
It also comes 2 weeks after Hiroto Saikawa resigned as chief executive amid allegations that he himself padded his salary.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
TOKYO/PARIS - Japan's Nissan said on Friday it would grant alliance member Renault's representatives seats on key committees of its board, ending a dispute between the 2 automakers.
Nissan said it would give Renault Chief Executive Thierry Bollore a seat on its board's audit committee and Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard a seat on its nomination committee. Senard will also become vice-chairman of the board.
The move comes after demands by Senard for representation on the committees in return for approving Nissan's overhauled governance structure plunged the 2-decade-old partnership into crisis.
"Groupe Renault welcomes Nissan's decision to grant Renault's representatives a seat on the committees of the Nissan board, which will be presented to the general shareholders' meeting on June 25," Renault said in a statement.
"The agreement reached on Renault's presence in Nissan's new governance confirms the spirit of dialogue and mutual respect that exists within the alliance," added Renault, whose merger talks with Fiat-Chrysler broke down this month.
Nissan also said it would nominate Yasushi Kimura, adviser at JXTG Holdings Inc, to chair its board.
The French state has a 15 percent stake in Renault, while Renault itself owns 43.4 percent of Nissan.
French ministers have consistently highlighted the importance of ensuring the Renault-Nissan alliance remains strong, before planning any further consolidation with the likes of Fiat-Chrysler.
The 20-year-old partnership between Renault and Nissan has been strained since former leader Carlos Ghosn was arrested for suspected financial misconduct last year. Ghosn denies wrongdoing.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK -- Global stocks plunged Tuesday as a sharp downward trend in the technology sector hit valuations hard and the Dow gave up all its gains for the year.
In Europe and Asia, there was much talk about the surprise arrest of Carlos Ghosn, boss of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, and stocks in the three companies plunged, while Wall Street suffered a second big decline.
Analysts at Capital Economics forecast the tech sector would continue to underperform in the coming quarters because of expected economic weakness in both the United States and China.
"Given the highly-cyclical nature of the IT sector, we have been arguing for a while that growth in its earnings would be hit especially hard in these circumstances," they said.
In New York, the Dow shed more than 550 points or 2.2 percent to 24,465.54.
The S&P 500 also slid into the red for the year, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index clung to a modest gain for all of 2018.
"Today was again a big sell-off," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. "Investors are repricing stocks."
Besides technology, US sectors with bruising declines included petroleum, following a big dip in oil prices, and retail, after a series of mixed earnings reports just ahead of the key holiday shopping season.
Analysts have blamed the weakness on worries about slowing global growth exacerbated by a series of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes and the burgeoning US-China trade dispute.
Some market watchers have said the fall has been exacerbated by light trading volumes this week ahead of Thursday's Thanksgiving holidays when markets will be closed.
President Donald Trump reentered the central bank fray on Tuesday, calling on the Fed to lower interest rates.
"We have much more of a Fed problem than a problem with anyone else," Trump told reporters, the latest sign of the US president's indifference to criticism that his comments on monetary policy help undermine central bank independence.
GHOSN WEIGHS ON AUTOMAKERS
In Asia, Nissan lost 5.5 percent and Mitsubishi sank 6.9 percent as they prepared to sack Ghosn after it emerged he had been taken into custody as detectives looked into claims he underreported his income for years.
Ghosn has long been a major player in the car industry and is credited with resurrecting the once-troubled Nissan, which he allied with Mitsubishi and France's Renault.
He heads the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance and serves as CEO of Renault.
Renault said Tuesday Ghosn would remain chief executive despite his arrest. But the French company appointed Chief Operating Officer Thierry Bollore as deputy CEO to ensure day-to-day management while Ghosn is "temporarily incapacitated."
Renault's share price closed 1.2 percent lower, extending Monday's eight percent dive.
"The market doesn't consider the share's fall to be a buying opportunity," said Cedric Besson, a portfolio manager at Gaspal Gestion.
Shares in Deutsche Bank dropped nearly 5 percent in Frankfurt amid fears that the German banking giant is being drawn into a money laundering scandal dogging Danish peer Danske Bank, dealers said.
Investors suspect that a former high-ranking Danske Bank manager meant Deutsche Bank when he told a parliamentary commission in Copenhagen that nearly $150 billion of doubtful transactions had been handled by the US subsidiary of "a big European bank".
KEY FIGURES AROUND 2200 GMT (6 a.m. Wednesday in Manila)
New York - Dow: DOWN 2.2 percent at 24,465.64 (close)
New York - S&P 500: DOWN 1.8 percent at 2,641.89 (close)
New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 1.7 percent at 6,908.82 (close)
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 6,947.92 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 1.6 percent at 11,066.41 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.2 percent at 4,924.89 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.4 percent at 3,116.07 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.1 percent at 21,583.12 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 2.0 percent at 25,840.34 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 2.1 percent at 2,645.85 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1370 from $1.1454 at 2200 GMT
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2787 from $1.2854
Dollar/yen: UP at 112.75 yen from 112.55 yen
Oil - Brent Crude: DOWN $4.24 at $62.55 per barrel
Oil - West Texas Intermediate: DOWN $3.77 at $53.43 per barrel
source: news.abs-cbn.com
