Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly returns home after Japanese legal battle

Former Nissan U.S. executive and Williamson County resident Greg Kelly arrived home to Tennessee on Monday following his suspended prison sentence in Japan and a nearly four-year legal battle.

Kelly was found guilty in a Japanese court of underreporting pay for his former boss, Carlos Ghosn, who successfully fled Japan in 2019 hidden in a box on a private jet to Lebanon. Though, he was acquitted of other charges.

Kelly’s suspended sentence meant that he was able to return to the United States, having previously lived in Brentwood and worked at Nissan’s U.S. headquarters in Franklin.

Kelly and his wife Dee were greeted at the gate by Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty and welcomed home by family, friends and supporters at the airport. 

Following this reunion of hugs and applause, Hagerty and the Kelly’s held a press conference where Hagerty detailed the work to support Kelly and see him returned to the U.S.

Hagerty specifically recognized U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, current U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, along with current Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, former Sen. Lamar Alexander and current Tennessee Congressman Mark Green, among other politicians and government officials.

“Greg Kelly is a man who's had a storied career.” Hagerty said. “He's been a remarkable businessman and leader here in the United States. He's helped build the economic alliance between the United States and Japan for decades.

"He's had an incredible career at one of the most important companies here in Tennessee—a company that has built its presence here and employed thousands of Tennesseans, and Greg was looking forward to his retirement from that career. And unfortunately, his retirement was cut short. [It was] a very regrettable situation that occurred. It took over three years to get him home, but today I'm delighted to be here to welcome Greg back.”

Kelly thanked Hagerty and others, saying that the support gave he and his wife hope while he “faced prosecution 7,000 miles away from home in a hostage-justice system for something that wasn’t even a crime," adding that "the system is designed to convict -- it's a prosecution system, it is not a criminal justice system."

In 2018, The New York Times reported that Kelly led Nissan’s human resources operations before joining Nissan’s board in 2012 as the first American board member.

Kelly was requested to attend a board meeting in November 2018 in person in Japan and had a private jet sent to pick him up, but was arrested after arriving in Tokyo.

“His family has portrayed him as the victim of a corporate power play who was lured to Tokyo last month on false pretenses so he could be arrested,” that 2018 NYT article reads.

Kelly and his lawyer plan to appeal the conviction in a Japanese court. Kelly maintains his innocence, arguing that he and his former boss were targeted because of the fear of a potential merger with a French company that some Japanese executives thought “would destroy the essence of Nissan.”

“This was a case where a trial showed there was no crime,” Kelly said. “It was an issue that should have been resolved by Nissan’s board, and my prosecution was a direct result of a coup engineered by a few senior Japanese executives to oust Carlos Ghose because they didn’t want Renault, a French car company, to merge with Nissan.”

Kelly spoke about his detainment in a solitary confinement cell he said was about the size of the table they sat at during the press conference, and about the strength and support of his wife. He added that he’s going to work on reconnecting with his family and friends, including his two-year-old grandson who he met for the first time last week.

“The next few months Dee and I are going to have to travel all over the country to personally thank people that have really stepped up and tried to help,” Kelly said.