A Japanese court on Thursday rejected prosecutors’ request to extend the detention of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, setting the stage for the potential release of the top auto executive.
Ghosn’s arrest in Tokyo last month on allegations of financial misconduct has rocked the global car industry and put strains on the alliance he presided over between Nissan (NSANY) and Renault (RNSDF).
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday also denied a request from prosecutors to extend the detention of Greg Kelly, a former Nissan director who is accused of helping Ghosn under-report his compensation in the company’s securities filings for years.
A Nissan spokesman declined to comment on the court’s decision, saying the pair’s detention was a matter for prosecutors. Tokyo prosecutors are due to hold a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
Ghosn and Kelly have been in detention since November 19. They were indicted last week on charges that they under-reported Ghosn’s income between 2010 and 2015, and prosecutors received court approval to continue holding them over additional allegations that the misreporting continued into 2017.
Nissan, which has also been indicted in the case, said the alleged misconduct was first brought to its attention by a whistleblower, which led to an internal investigation that uncovered serious problems. The company alerted prosecutors and began cooperating with them.
Ghosn has retained lawyers to represent him but has issued no public statement.
Kelly’s wife, Donna “Dee” Kelly, appeared in a video published online Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal in which she said that her husband has been “wrongly accused as part of a power grab by several Nissan executives” led by CEO Hiroto Saikawa.
In response to her comments, a Nissan spokesman said that “the cause of this chain of events is the misconduct led by Mr. Ghosn and Mr. Kelly.”
“During the internal investigation into this misconduct, the Prosecutors Office began its own investigation and took action,” the spokesman said.
