SEC examines Nissan's payment information for Carlos Ghosn

Nissan and Mr. Ghosn have been charged in Japan with underreporting his compensation of more than $ 80 million for eight years by the company's financial reports.

Mr. Ghosn says he is innocent of the charges of the Tokyo prosecutors. He says he kept a record at Nissan of how much he thought he was worth, but it was hypothetical and bound Nissan to pay him anything beyond his publicly reported compensation. Nissan has expressed regret at the potential impact on the shareholders, but has not said whether it will dispute the costs.

The SEC survey seems to be at an early stage and has not expanded beyond a request for information, one of the people said. It could not be determined whether the SEC would open a wider survey.

The regulator has wide authority to police the sale of securities in the United States and potentially expose both Mr. Ghosn and Nissan to penalties. Nissan shares are not trading on a stock exchange in the United States, but the company issues a form of US receipts through a US bank, which allows US investors to essentially own Nissan shares in US dollars.

Mr. Ghosn was arrested on November 19 following a secret investigation into Nissan. He has been denied bail so far and is still in jail for at least March 10, when a judge is scheduled to undergo his prison.

People who are familiar with Nissan's internal investigation have said that Mr. Ghosn sought to lower the amount of his compensation It was announced and planned to collect the excluded money after retirement. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa has said that Mr. Ghosn was "too strong" so he could circumvent his actions.

Nissan and Tokyo prosecutors believe that these future payments should have been disclosed in the company's accounts. Mr. Ghosn has said some discussions about future payments were preliminary and would need board approval to become binding.

-Nick Kostov and Dave Michaels contributed to this article.

Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com