TOKYO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Japanese prosecutors will not indict Nissan Motor Co. CEO Hiroto Saikawa for violating Japan's financial instruments law following allegations he knew about former Chairman Carlos Ghosn under-reporting his remuneration, sources with knowledge of the matter said Friday.
A complaint filed against Saikawa had claimed he had knowledge that Ghosn had been under-reporting his remuneration in Nissan's securities reports submitted to Japanese regulators for two years through March 2018, in violation of Japan's financial instruments law.
While Saikawa admitted to prosecutors he had signed official documents agreeing to Ghosn's post-retirement payments, no mention of the ex-auto tycoon's actual remuneration was in the documents signed by the Nissan CEO.
Nissan, itself, however, along with Ghosn, has been indicted for violating the financial instruments law by under-reporting remuneration and will face trial along with its ex-chief.
The embattled automaker is set to revamp its management, with Saikawa being kept in his post as CEO, sources said this week, although some industry insiders have said he should have stepped down in response to Nissan's protracted scandal involving Ghosn and owing to the automaker's subpar earnings released recently.
"We will try to achieve more sustainable growth rather than chasing numbers as was the case under the former chairman," Saikawa said at a press briefing this week, after the firm reported its FY 2018 earnings, which had dropped to a nine-year low, with reference to Ghosn, who had set a far more aggressive sales target for Nissan.
In response to his critics, Saikawa said that along with his French partners, he will do his utmost to settle the turmoil created by Ghosn's arrest and slumping earnings to restore the trust of the automaker's shareholders.
Ghosn, meanwhile, has vehemently maintained his innocence and has said he was the victim of a conspiracy against him by Nissan executives.
