Wife of Jailed Nissan Director Greg Kelly Says He’s a Victim of Boardroom Coup
Dee Kelly says her husband was caught up in a plot by Nissan CEO to seize control from Carlos Ghosn; Nissan says alleged misconduct landed them in jail
The wife of Greg Kelly, the Nissan Motor Co. NSANY 0.86% director jailed alongside former Chairman Carlos Ghosn in Japan, said her husband was the victim of a boardroom coup and was lured to Tokyo despite plans for surgery in the U.S.
Donna “Dee” Kelly, making her first public comments since her husband’s arrest on Nov. 19, gave the clearest rebuttal yet of the charges against him and criticized Japanese authorities’ treatment of him in detention.
In a video statement provided to The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Kelly’s U.S. lawyer, Ms. Kelly said her husband was caught up in a plot by Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa to seize control of the Japanese car maker from Mr. Ghosn, who was ousted last month after being taken into custody over alleged financial misconduct.
“Greg has been wrongly accused as part of a power grab by several Nissan executives headed up by the current CEO, Saikawa,” she said in the video.
A Nissan spokesman said, “The cause of this chain of events is the misconduct led by Mr. Ghosn and Mr. Kelly.” The spokesman added, “During the internal investigation into this misconduct, the Prosecutors Office began its own investigation and took action.”
Ms. Kelly said her 62-year-old husband was suffering from a spinal ailment that needs immediate attention and wanted Japanese prosecutors to release him so he could undergo surgery in the U.S. before his condition causes permanent damage.
The Tokyo prosecutors office said Mr. Kelly was receiving proper care in detention and declined to comment further.
Messrs. Ghosn and Kelly were charged this month by Japanese prosecutors with underreporting Mr. Ghosn’s compensation on Nissan’s financial statements. A person familiar with Mr. Ghosn’s legal defense has said Mr. Ghosn maintains his innocence.
Nissan was quick to cut ties with Mr. Ghosn, increasing tensions with strategic partner Renault SA, which owns a 43.4% stake in the Japanese auto maker.
Earlier this week, Mr. Saikawa rebuffed a request from Renault deputy CEO Thierry Bolloré to convene an early shareholder meeting, saying Nissan needed several months to find ways to improve its governance.
Mr. Kelly, who was one of three senior-ranking board members at Nissan, was detained after flying to Japan from the U.S., where he had returned in 2015 after giving up most of his operational duties at the company.
“Greg and Mr. Ghosn fully believe that they did not break the law,” Ms. Kelly said in the video. She said there would be more to say in the coming days but didn’t elaborate. “The truth of this will come out,” she said.
Nissan declined to make Mr. Saikawa available for comment.
Mr. Kelly, a U.S. citizen, was one of the few Americans to hold a senior leadership role at a company led mostly by European and Japanese executives. He was also the first and only American to become a senior-ranking director on Nissan’s board when he joined it in 2012.
Known inside Nissan as a fierce Ghosn loyalist and behind-the-scenes troubleshooter, Mr. Kelly ran the CEO’s office and human resources in 2010 when new executive-compensation rules went into effect. Prosecutors allege that after the rules changed, Messrs. Ghosn and Kelly caused Nissan illegally to omit some $44 million in Mr. Ghosn’s compensation in the company’s financial statements over five years.
Ms. Kelly said her husband, a lawyer by training, had to solve complex legal issues facing the company as part of his job and he relied on both inside and outside sources to assist him in this work.
Before his arrest, Mr. Ghosn was planning to call a board meeting to reshuffle the company’s top management—including removing Mr. Saikawa as CEO and reinstating Mr. Kelly in a management position, according to people familiar with the plans.
Mr. Kelly typically participated in Nissan board meetings by phone. But Ms. Kelly said Nissan executive Hari Nada told Mr. Kelly he was needed in Japan and persuaded him to attend the meeting in person, arranging for a corporate jet to fly him from Nashville to Tokyo.
Ms. Kelly said her husband had been reluctant to go because of his health and a scheduled surgery in early December. He suffers from spinal stenosis, a compression of spaces in the spinal cord, which has caused him to experience numbness, tingling and shooting pains in the extremities, she said.
Nissan declined to comment on the events leading to Mr. Kelly’s arrest and declined to make Mr. Nada available for comment.
Since being jailed in Tokyo, Mr. Kelly’s Japanese attorney said his health has deteriorated, in part because he has slept on a futon on the floor and without a special neck pillow, Ms. Kelly said. His American doctor said Mr. Kelly’s symptoms could become permanent if he doesn’t have the surgery, she said.
“We are asking the prosecutors to release Greg and allow him to get the treatment that he needs,” said Ms. Kelly, who is in the U.S. “With Christmas less than 10 days away, my Christmas wish would be for Greg to be home with his family, recovering from his surgery.”
Prosecutors have received court approval to detain Messrs. Ghosn and Kelly without the possibility of bail through Thursday, and they can seek a 10-day extension of that period. After that—assuming prosecutors don’t bring forward new suspicions—the defendants would be eligible to seek release on bail, but courts in similar cases have declined to grant it.
Japanese authorities said they will ask a doctor to examine Mr. Kelly to confirm his diagnosis and need for surgery, Ms. Kelly said. He hasn’t been allowed to speak with family members in person or on the phone, nor receive any letters from friends and family members, she said.
A spokesman for the detention center in Tokyo declined to comment. A Ministry of Justice spokesman, speaking generally about detainees, said it could take some time for items from the family to be delivered if the detainee’s condition wasn’t life-threatening.