Japan central banker mum on alleged involvement in Ghosn transaction

FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) – A Bank of Japan board member declined on Thursday to comment on a media report that she was involved in an alleged attempt by former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn to shift personal investment losses to the automaker during her time at a commercial bank.

Japanese tabloid Shukan Bunshun reported on Thursday that as an executive at Shinsei Bank Ltd (T:), Takako Masai was involved in an alleged attempt by Ghosn to pass on 1.7 billion yen ($15 million) in personal derivatives-trading losses incurred during the 2008 financial crisis to Nissan. The suspected transaction was first reported by the Asahi newspaper on Tuesday.

“I’d like to refrain from commenting about individual transactions due to my duty of confidentiality,” Masai told a news conference after meeting with business executives in Fukuoka, southern Japan.

“I also cannot comment on individual transactions made by Shinsei Bank.” The bank also declined to comment on the Shukan Bunshun report.

Quoting an unnamed former Shinsei Bank official, the tabloid said a team of the bank’s officials including Masai sought to have Ghosn’s investment losses passed on to the automaker on condition that he get approval from Nissan’s board.

The attempt was later aborted after securities regulators inspected Shinsei Bank and Nissan, and disapproved of the idea, the tabloid said.

Masai joined the BOJ in 2016 after serving as an executive at Shinsei Bank from 2007.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.