Tokyo prosecutors sought a two-year prison term Wednesday for Greg Kelly, a former Nissan Motor Co. executive, for helping his former boss Carlos Ghosn underreport his remuneration by millions of yen.

In seeking the prison term during his trial at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors said Kelly, 65, together with Toshiaki Onuma, a 62-year-old former chief secretary at Nissan, supported a system of "backdoor remuneration."

Under the scheme, Kelly and Onuma were set to make deferred payments to Ghosn under another name, prosecutors said. They argued the role could only have been performed by Kelly, "who was a strategist with knowledge of the law and trusted by the former chairman."