Details Emerge of Latest Ghosn Allegation

by Steph Willems

Published: December 27th, 2018

details emerge of latest ghosn allegation

Ousted Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn didn’t have the kind of Christmas he’d have liked, cooling his heels in a Tokyo jail after new allegations led to his third arrest on Friday. This served to lengthen the already six-week-long internment of the industry titan.

Now, details have emerged of the alleged crime that’s keeping Ghosn behind bars.

Japanese authorities re-arrested Ghosn on Dec. 21 on breach of trust charges, claiming the exec covered losses incurred through derivatives trading with Nisan funds in 2008. Those losses totalled $16.6 million, prosecutors say.

According to Nissan sources who spoke to Reuters, the latest charge stems from a transaction with a Saudi businessman — one who helped Ghosn out of “financial difficulties.”

Prosecutors claim that, in October 2008, Ghosn found himself shouldering $16.6 million in personal investment losses from a swap contract from an unnamed bank. Someone stepped forward, they said, helping arrange a letter of credit for the exec. Between 2009 and 2012, some $14.7 million in Nissan funds flowed to this individual in four installments, with the payments made in this individual and Ghosn’s interest. Earlier, prosecutors claim, Ghosn attempted to make Nissan take the full brunt of the losses.

From Reuters:

According to the Nissan sources who have knowledge of the company’s probe into its former chief, the person who helped Ghosn is Khaled Al-Juffali, vice chairman of one of Saudi Arabia’s largest conglomerates, E. A. Juffali and Brothers, and a member of the board at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.

He is also majority owner of a company called Al-Dahana which owns half of a regional joint venture called Nissan Gulf with the other half held by a wholly owned unit of Nissan Motor.

Through his lawyer, Ghosn claimed the payments were legit and stemmed from issues with Saudi dealers that Al-Juffali helped solve.

The details emerge as Ghosn’s right-hand man, Greg Kelly, remains free on bail. The ousted Nissan board member was arrested Nov. 19 for allegedly helping Ghosn underreport his income to Japan’s finance ministry. Kelly secured bail on Christmas.

[Image: Nissan]

#CarlosGhosn #Ghosn #LawAndOrder #Nissan

Steph Willems

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4 of 8 comments

Jeoff on Dec 27, 2018

At this point, why pretend that the “details” regarding the charge of the week matter? The Japanese government still wants Ghosn in jail, so he is in jail. Someone giving the real details about who in the government is really is pushing for his incarceration and why —now, that would be interesting.

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- Musiccitymafia on Dec 28, 2018
  
  Sorry dude, the government has no personal incentives outside taxes. That's a straw man arguement.
  
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- Jeoff on Dec 28, 2018
  
  @musiccitymafia Really? Worldwide, I would argue governments are not that pure. Folks certainly certainly serve time for charges for political reasons in China, Russia and elsewhere, but Japan is exempt from suspicion? Nationalism is on the rise throughout the world, but Japan’s government is immune from acting nationalistically? A foreign executive has moved two Japanese car companies further away from Japanese control, and was suspected of continuing this move—but, no one in this racially homogenous country would perceive this as a threat to the nation’s economic security or stature? His actions during the time period listed did not run a company into the ground, or kill consumers, but saved it from bankruptcy—but this foreigner has been selected to be cut off from his family, the public, and the companies he leads for completely unpolitical tax reasons.
  
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Matt51 on Dec 29, 2018

Does Japan have chain gangs?

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