Just yesterday, it looked as if Renault CEO and former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn might make it out of jail by the weekend. Japanese prosecutors had another idea, however. The industry titan was re-arrested Friday morning on suspicion of aggravated breach of trust, pushing the possibility of bail and a hotel Christmas further from the realm of possibility.
Detained since his initial Nov. 19 arrest, Ghosn is now accused of covering losses incurred through derivatives trading with Nisan funds. Those losses — totalling $16.6 million — took place in 2008.
In the five weeks since their Tokyo arrests, Ghosn and his right-hand man, Nissan board member Greg Kelly (also ousted from the automaker’s board), were indicted on charges of underreporting income to Japan’s finance ministry from 2010 to 2014, then re-arrested on suspicion of carrying out the same practice from 2015 to 2017. The shortfall in their financial reporting amounts to nearly $80 million. Ghosn was set to walk free on bail by the end of the week after Tokyo prosecutors failed in their attempt to overturn a district court ruling. Now, another period of detention seems unavoidable.
As reported by The Guardian, prosecutors stated, “The accused was responsible for managing Nissan’s overall operations and for dutifully fulfilling his role as chief executive not to cause damage to Nissan and its subsidiaries … but he took action that betrayed his role and caused financial damage to Nissan.”
Much like the others, Ghosn denies these charges. Speaking (through his lawyer) to Japanese broadcaster NHK, the executive said, “Things as they stand are absolutely unacceptable. I want to have my position heard and restore my honour in court.”
It’s believed that harsh (read: standard practice) treatment of Ghosn by Japanese authorities led the court to rule that the 64-year-old exec’s detention should end. Japanese Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita sees it differently, calling the blowback “unwarranted.” Regardless, with this new allegation, Ghosn now faces two days of questioning, and prosecutors will likely apply for a detention of 10 to 20 days.
While Alliance members Nissan and Mitsubishi quickly washed their hands of Ghosn, Renault’s staying put. To date, there’s no report of financial irregularities on the French automaker’s books. Last week, the company’s board voted to keep him on as CEO and chairman, just as Nissan handed over the dossier detailing the results of its own internal investigation.
[Image: Nissan]
FFS. The Japanese are really butthurt.
someone please convince HRC to visit Japan
Somebody please convince DJT to visit Japan.
There, fixed it for you.
Someone please convince ALL our elected officials to visit Japan.
There, fixed it for you!
Politicians (ALL OF THEM) are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason.
The money men don’t like that, though. They’d rather see gerrymandered districts so that their employees – I mean, our elected representatives – never get voted out.
(And for the record, that’s not a one-party problem.)
Someone convince Japan to visit America.
“Someone convince Japan to visit America.”
They did: 7 December 1941. It didn’t end well for them. I’ve never really liked Nissans (except the R32, R34, and R35 GT-Rs). There’s no way I’d ever buy their crap after this. Kinda bummed Mitsubishi is tangentially involved, now that I need parts and occasional servicing for my Evo X from them -_-.
WTF is HRC? Honda Racing Corporation (a real thing and is automotive related)?
Hillary Rotten Clinton
Something about this whole situation does not feel right, to someone used to American standards of justice. Yes, I know, it’s Japan. I just can’t shake the feeling that the real reason for all this is to separate Nissan from Renault, now that Nissan’s healthy again. And at as much advantage as can be generated.
How many Takata execs were arrested?
“…suspicion of aggravated breach of trust…”
If they had that law on the books here in Colorado, my ex wife would be on her 223rd life sentence by now.
“Not so fast, Carlos-san!”
Ghosn, ghosted?
And next time release is near they’ll reveal something from 2009 that they’re sitting on
“Serving a life sentence two weeks at a time.”
I wonder how Ghosn treatment in Japan’s criminal justice system compares to that of native Japanese corporate executives who have similarly run afoul of Japanese laws.
But, is that really the question? You can say everyone that is in the system gets treated in the same crappy way. But, the real question is why he was put in the system in the first place? Was this anything resembling a normal investigation? Or was he targeted by the Japanese government because the Japanese government wanted disintangle Nissan from foreign influence? Once he was targeted, then the Japanese justice system could just do its normal thing, nothing special was really required for the government to get its desired results at that point.
Japanese corporate executives would commit suicide. It is honorable thing to do.
So if you’re Japanese and the head of a big Japanese company, and let’s say you misreport crash test results on millions of cars, or misrepresent fuel economy testing on millions of cars, or maybe you falsify material test reports on hundreds of thousands of tons of metal going all over the world for decades. All you gotta do is go on TV, cry for the news cameras, and either go back to your same position at the company or retire comfortably.
If you’re a gaijin and the head of a big Japanese company that YOU made successful, they’ll twist your future retirement fund into unreported income and arrest you during the biggest global holiday there is.
Now you understand.
Yes, that’s correct. Stuff like this is why it’s so easy to develop a love-hate relationship with this country. Clean, safe, orderly, with abundant high-quality consumer goods……and a culture that is hypocritical in the extreme regarding how it treats those in the in-group (native Japanese) and the out-group (everyone else). Man….lemme not get started on a rant, I’ll be here all night…
I blame GM, Cadillac, and Melody Lee.
Japanese gave Carlos slack if consider how they treated American POWs.
Seems the government says Ghosn and Nissan are both guilty of underreporting some money Nissan might give Ghosn at some point in the future (maybe). At that future point for tax purposes Nissan will take an expense and Ghosn will declare more income.
Now a supposed internal transaction that Ghosn and Nissan agreed to 10 yrs ago pops up. Seems the government doesn’t like that Nissan took the losses from a sour investment of some kind. Also just about tax rate differences?
Tax attorney’s from both sides will need time to sort this out.