The matter weighed on him. In 2010, Mr. Kelly mr. Nada to begin the first of a series of secret plans that were intended to destroy Mr. Ghosn’s benefits and compensation, according to court testimony and internal Nissan documents.
Executive compensation was a dangerous political issue in France, Mr Nada testified earlier this month, and if Mr Ghosn’s actual compensation were disclosed, the French government – as a major shareholder of Renault – would have urged the company to call him. to fire.
Mr. Nada, 56, had joined Nissan in 1990 as a junior legal counsel and was very loyal to the company. He started his career in Great Britain and became a senior manager in 2010.
Hiding his work from Mr. Ghosn, he wrote in a draft statement to prosecutors reviewed by The Times, in part because Mr. Kelly convinced him that, in his position as head of the alliance, his boss was a critical stronghold. was against the ambition of the French government for Renault to acquire Nissan, its junior partner.
For eight years, Mr. Nada worked “proactively and creatively” to realize Mr. Kelly’s instructions, he told the court, arranging to purchase homes around the world for Mr. Ghosn’s personal use and to inform of his salary.
His career progressed rapidly. In the spring of 2018, as the investigation into Mr. Ghosn began to coincide, Mr. Nada held immense power, controlling Nissan’s legal, compliance, security, and communications departments, among other things. He was a top advisor to the then General Manager, Hiroto Saikawa, and to Mr. Ghosn.
According to the documents, Mr. Nada spent years asking both internal and external auditors about his work for Mr. Ghosn fended off. But in 2018, a Nissan whistleblower complained about travel expenses for Mr Ghosn’s family to a corporate accountant, Hidetoshi Imazu. The matter, Mr. Imazu later on to Nissan’s lawyers urged him to go into Mr. Ghosn, including one of the secret companies Mr. Nada had set up to acquire properties.