Dropped From Mitsubishi and Nissan, Ghosn Faces New Allegations

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Mitsubishi Motors, which joined the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 2016, voted unanimously to drop Carlos Ghosn as its chairman Monday, just a week after the executive’s arrest on suspicion of financial misdealings.

According to CEO Osamu Masuko, who now dons the title of interim chairman, it was an “agonizing decision.” For Ghosn, the agony has just begun. Currently housed in a Tokyo jail awaiting formal charges, the industry titan ended last week by seeing the company he ran for 15 years, Nissan, oust him as chairman. Renault hasn’t made a decision as to the fate of its CEO.

While Ghosn is accused of underreporting his income in the early part of the decade, a Japanese newspaper has shed light on another alleged misdeed.

From Reuters, citing Asahi Shimbun:

Citing multiple unnamed sources, the paper said that when Ghosn’s bank had called for more collateral from the executive, he instead handed the rights over the derivatives trade to Nissan, which effectively shouldered 1.7 billion yen ($15 million) in losses.

Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) discovered this incident during that year’s routine inspection, the Asahi said.

Neither Nissan nor the SESC was willing to comment on the newspaper’s report. Ghosn is accused of conspiring with Nissan board member Greg Kelly to underreport the then-CEO’s income by up to $44 million in filings to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The filings took place between 2010 and 2014. Kelley is also being held. Under Japanese law, authorities have until December 12th to file charges against the two men.

As for Mitsubishi, the automaker didn’t wait to see the legal process through before making its decision — a course of action some Renault members are angling for. As reported by CNN, CEO Masuko said following the vote, “The priority was what to do to protect the company, what to do to protect our employees and their families. It was an unavoidable decision.”

[Image: Nissan]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Ol Shel Ol Shel on Nov 27, 2018

    The deep-state conspiracy theories are fading, I see. That's good.

  • JoDa JoDa on Nov 28, 2018

    This seams like a political hit of Ghosn by Macron. France government feeds off of Nissan profits.

  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
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