Japan's securities watchdog recommended Tuesday that automaker Nissan Motor Co. be fined 2.42 billion yen ($22 million) over allegations that it underreported former chairman Carlos Ghosn's remuneration by billions of yen for years.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission said this is the first time it has made a recommendation of a fine to the Financial Services Agency over an alleged case of false reporting of executive remuneration.

The recommended fine over alleged financial statement falsification is the second largest since the watchdog proposed Toshiba Corp. pay some 7.3 billion yen in 2015.

Nissan said in a statement it "will continue its efforts to strengthen its governance and ensure that the (company's) operations reflect full awareness of the importance of compliance."

The SESC has also filed a criminal complaint against Nissan and Ghosn for allegedly violating the financial instruments law by underreporting the former chairman's pay package by around 9.1 billion yen in the eight years through March 2018 in the company's securities reports that were presented to Japanese regulators.

Tokyo prosecutors have indicted both Nissan and Ghosn on the charge, with the trial expected to start next spring.

The fine of 2.4 billion yen targets an underreported period of four years through March 2018, for which the statute of limitations has not expired.

Initially, the penalty for Nissan was expected to reach 4 billion yen, based on the amount of pay left out of submitted documents, but the automaker asked the watchdog for a reduction in the fine since it reported the matter before an investigation got fully under way. The SESC accepted Nissan's request.

The company corrected its securities reports in May, including executive remuneration, from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2017.

If Nissan is found guilty of the charges at trial and imposed a penalty, the amount will be offset by the latest fine.

==Kyodo

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