Nissan chief Hiroto Saikawa quits following pay revelations

Hiroto Saikawa has resigned as CEO of Nissan with immediate effect after admitting being improperly overpaid.

Saikawa had recently indicated he would quit after admitting being overpaid, and his departure was agreed at a board meeting in Japan today. Current COO Yasuhiro Yamauchi will take over as acting CEO, with the company aiming to appoint a new CEO by the end of October.

The departure of Saikawa is another blow to Nissan following the revelations of financial misconduct that led to the departure and arrest of former chief Carlos Ghosn and director Greg Kelly.

Whereas Ghosn had pushed to fully merge the three companies involved in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Saikawa has been pushing for Nissan to retain full independence.

The misconduct came to light in a report from the troubled firm’s audit committee following an internal investigation into misconduct by Ghosn and Kelly.

The report, produced by Nissan and an external law firm, listed several specific instances of financial misconduct. While it hasn't been published in full, Nissan has released an overview of its key points.

These include the fact that Saikawa had been overpaid as part of a bonus payment scheme – a charge that he recently admitted.

The report says that, in 2013, Saikawa made a request to Kelly to find a way to increase his pay. While Kelly didn't meet that request, he subsequently recalculated the compensation due from Saikawa’s share appreciation rights and falsified documents to give the appearance that those rights had been exercised a week after the actual date.

The report also found that two former Nissan directors and four former or current executives benefitted from share overpayments due to improper handling by Kelly. However, the report suggests that only Ghosn and Kelly will be charged with misconduct, because the others were unaware of the methods employed by Kelly.

The overview of the report also includes several examples of how overpayments to Ghosn were concealed and lists several examples of his personal use of company assets.

These included $27 million (£21.7m) assigned to Nissan subsidiary Zi-A Capital being spent on properties for Ghosn’s personal use in Beirut and Rio de Janeiro, more than $750,000 (£604,000) being paid to Ghosn’s sister for a fictitious consulating contract and more than $2m (£1.6m) being paid to two universities in Ghosn’s home country of Lebanon with "no legitimate business purpose".

Read more

Nissan ousts Ghosn due to financial misconduct

Ghosn: charges a plot to stop full Renault merger