Kelly, an American lawyer who worked for three decades for
“I don’t think any of us were involved in a crime, or a criminal activity," Kelly told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in his
“We were involved in trying to solve a business problem, which was: What actions do you take that are lawful to retain a very valuable executive who was underpaid?” Kelly added, referring to Ghosn.
“It should have been resolved at the corporate level at Nissan. It’s not a criminal matter,” said Kelly, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted and is forbidden from leaving
Behind him, the walls of the apartment Kelly shares with his wife, Dee, were plastered with photos of his two grandsons, including a 20-month-old baby he has never held. Family is most important, the 64-year-old Kelly said, especially this late in life.
“When you get into your 60s, you’re not looking at a long horizon,” Kelly said.
“Every day that you miss with your family, you know, that to me is the stress. To spend 33 months without my family. For a corporate matter, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
Kelly was working for Nissan but living in the
After landing in
Kelly was taken to a detention center, handcuffed and searched, then led to an interrogation room, and questioned by prosecutors, initially without a lawyer present.
“It was a shock,” he said.
He was kept in solitary confinement for 35 days and interrogated daily. He was confused. He could not call his wife. He pleaded to be allowed to get help from Nissan. Little did he know, he said, that Nissan was behind the arrest.
LIFE ON BAIL
To pass the time as he awaits a verdict, Kelly takes long walks with his wife, who moved to
Kelly says he is lucky to have Dee, his college sweetheart from their days at
She was at his trial, giving her husband a thumbs-up as he walked into the courtroom with his lawyers. Sitting in the front row, she took copious notes since court transcripts are only in Japanese.
“You feel like you can’t breathe,” she said, not knowing what could have happened to her husband while on a business trip. At home, Japanese reporters were already showing up at her door.
“You work all your life so you can have time during retirement to spend with your kids, and we really wanted to play a big part in our grandkids’ lives, and that was taken,” she said of the events that have unfolded since. “What was done to him is beyond terrible.”
Kelly dedicated his life to Nissan, she said. “To have him treated like this, especially by people that were your friends. That’s really hard.”
THE CASE
Unknown except to several top Nissan officials, Ghosn’s salary was slashed from about
Prosecutors contend there was an elaborate plan to make up for the pay cut, which should have been documented in Nissan’s annual securities report.
At trial, they presented as evidence tables on Ghosn’s unpaid salary, kept meticulously by another Nissan official. Kelly says he didn’t know about the tables.
From Ghosn's native
In an AP interview in May, Ghosn mounted a robust defense of Kelly, saying: “Obviously he is innocent.”
“Some observers think that Kelly may be a bit of a pawn in the (Japanese) government’s effort to salvage its reputation after Ghosn escaped," said
THE ALLIANCE BACKDROP
“There is absolutely no evidence,” Kitamura said, adding there was no motive either. “Nissan and the prosecutors got together and concocted this into a criminal case.”
Kelly was just trying to do what he thought was best for Nissan, Kitamura added.
Kelly says he may have been singled out because he, like Ghosn, supported a merger for Nissan and
Nada, former Nissan Chief Executive
“It was a small group that put together this scenario,” Kelly said of his and Ghosn’s arrests.
KELLY’S BROTHERS
John and
“To commit a crime, you have to have a motive. Greg didn’t get anything. He was trying to help Nissan,”
“He was just doing his job.”
The brothers grew up playing baseball and football in their backyard together.
“He was always an honest guy. He was always someone you could trust and talk to,” said John Kelly, a general surgeon in
“I know my brother. I know he will never be involved in anything dishonest.”
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