NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/nissan/) today announced that a class action has been commenced by an institutional investor on behalf of purchasers of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (OTC:NSANY) American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) during the period between December 10, 2013 and November 16, 2018 (the “Class Period”). This action was filed in the Middle District of Tennessee and is captioned Jackson County Employees’ Retirement System v. Ghosn, et al.
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased Nissan ADRs during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice. An investor’s ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@rgrdlaw.com. You can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/nissan/.
The complaint charges Nissan and certain of its current and former officers and/or directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Nissan is an automobile manufacturer with its U.S. headquarters located in Smyrna, Tennessee.
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse information regarding Nissan’s business and financial condition. Specifically, according to the complaint, Nissan has been materially understating its expenses – and overstating profits – by concealing half of the annual executive compensation it was obligated to pay its former Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chairman of its Board of Directors (“Board”), defendant Carlos Ghosn (“Ghosn”), in order to avoid shareholder scrutiny of Ghosn’s inordinately high executive compensation. Over the past decade, Nissan reported paying defendant Ghosn ¥1 billion per year in compensation. In truth, Nissan paid defendant Ghosn an additional ¥1 billion per year in the form of deferred compensation I.O.U.s, but failed to disclose these payments in the Company’s publicly filed financial reports. As a result, Nissan underreported defendant Ghosn’s true pay over the decade by an estimated ¥10 billion. The Company also concealed from investors the significant defects in its corporate governance and internal controls that facilitated this false financial reporting, and affirmatively failed to heed the express direction of its outside auditors dating back to at least 2013 to accurately report its executive compensation. Not only did the underreporting deceive Nissan’s investors, it violated the pay cap Nissan shareholders approved. As a result of defendants’ false statements and/or omissions, the price of Nissan ADRs was artificially inflated to more than $22 per share during the Class Period.
Then on November 19, 2018, investors learned that defendants Ghosn and Greg Kelly, a former member of the Board and Senior Vice President of Nissan, had been arrested by Japanese law enforcement. A statement from Tokyo prosecutors said defendant Ghosn was being held for violating a Japanese law that prohibits false financial filings. Defendants Ghosn and Kelly were reportedly arrested as a result of information provided by an unidentified non-Japanese executive in Nissan’s legal department acting as a whistleblower. It was later disclosed that an internal investigation at Nissan found that defendant Ghosn had also improperly filed expenses and used Company assets for his private use for many years. On news of these arrests, the price of Nissan ADRs declined precipitously, closing down more than more than 5% on November 19, 2018.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Nissan ADRs during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud.
Robbins Geller is one of the world’s leading law firms representing investors in securities litigation. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For five consecutive years, ISS Securities Class Action Services has ranked the Firm in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report as one of the top law firms in both amount recovered for shareholders and total number of class action settlements. Robbins Geller attorneys have helped shape the securities laws and recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of aggrieved victims. Beyond securing financial recoveries for defrauded investors, Robbins Geller also specializes in implementing corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information.
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