Nissan Motor Co. paid tuition for all four of ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn’s children when they attended Stanford University between 2004 and 2015, according to people familiar with the matter.
The perk was part of Ghosn’s employment contract from 1999, when he was hired as chief executive officer of the Japanese carmaker, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. The benefit, which isn’t common among top executives, would have been worth at least $601,000, according to fee schedules published by Stanford during the years his children were enrolled.
In a statement, Nissan declined to comment on the details of executive compensation packages. Ghosn’s lawyer in Paris, Jean-Yves Le Borgne, declined to comment, while a spokesman for Stanford in California didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Ghosn, 65, has been charged in Japan with under-reporting his income by tens of millions of dollars at Nissan and misusing company funds. He has denied wrongdoing and is awaiting trial on bail after spending 108 days in a Tokyo prison. The Stanford tuition adds to a list of lavish extras Ghosn enjoyed as the head of Nissan and its alliance partners Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., including luxury residences on four continents and a wedding party at the Chateau of Versailles.
‘Highly Unusual’
The advantage of wealth in gaining access to elite U.S. universities has emerged as a hot topic following recent allegations that rich parents bribed university administrators and coaches at top schools to gain admission for their children.
While no such payments are alleged in Ghosn’s case, it’s “highly unusual” that Nissan would pay his kids’ university fees, according to Robin Ferracone, chief executive of Farient Advisors, an executive-compensation consulting firm based in New York City and Los Angeles.
“Typically you only see tuition reimbursements as part of expatriate assignments, and those are for kids below university age,” Ferracone said.
Nissan’s official filings in Japan and the U.S., where its shares trade as American depositary receipts, didn’t include any information about Ghosn’s benefits. Under U.S. law, executives’ benefits are treated as taxable compensation, and U.S. public companies must report them to investors. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into whether Yokohama-based Nissan accurately disclosed executive compensation. Nissan has said it is cooperating.
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