Ghosn Aimed for Second $80 Million Nissan Payout
- Option plan would have given Ghosn 90 percent of total value
- Plan was never presented to board or shareholders, people say
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Well before his ouster at Nissan Motor Co., Carlos Ghosn drew up a 10-billion-yen incentive plan for the board of which 9 billion yen, or around $80 million, was meant to go in his own pocket.
Under the plan, which wasn’t adopted, Nissan was to issue stock options to directors that could be exercised for 1 yen each upon retirement, according to two people with direct knowledge of the investigation that led to Ghosn’s arrest for financial crimes on Nov. 19. On average, the shares have traded for more than 1,000 times that price over the past year, making the proposed options virtually equivalent to free shares.