Ghosn's Days As an Auto Executive Could End Tomorrow

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

As the Carlos Ghosn saga slowly crawls its way towards a trial, the former Nissan and Mitsubishi chairman might soon add another “former” to his list of descriptors. In an effort to mend a rift in the automotive alliance, Renault’s board has scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday, during which the pressure will be on to oust Ghosn as the automaker’s chairman and CEO.

As he cools his heels in jail, Ghosn isn’t in a position to offer much resistance to any decision rendered by the board. The exec has reportedly offered to resign.

While Nissan and Mitsubishi dropped Ghosn not long after his Nov. 19 arrest on suspicion of underreporting income to Japanese regulators, Renault held out. Its partial French ownership and Ghosn’s nationality played a role, and the diverging decisions soon placed a strain on the alliance relationship.

According to the Financial Times, Ghosn’s failure to secure bail earlier this week was the final straw for his tenure as Renault boss. Sources close to the talks claim that Ghosn, realizing he’ll be held in jail until his trail, has begun making formal arrangements to resign his posts.

From FT:

Renault and the French government have been discussing the terms of Mr Ghosn’s departure ahead of its board meeting on Thursday where the company is expected to appoint Jean-Dominique Senard, chief executive of tyremaker Michelin, as chairman while Thierry Bolloré, who is already running the business in Mr Ghosn’s absence, is made chief executive.

On Tuesday, Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, said on French television that Mr Senard “would make an excellent chairman of Renault”.

Mr Ghosn is also expected to step down as chief executive and chairman of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. Mr Senard is then expected to take over his roles, according to people close to the group.

Japanese authorities have charged Ghosn with underreporting his income for years, as well as transferring personal trading losses to Nissan. While the executive maintains he has done nothing wrong, two bail appeals in the past week both met with disappointment.

Late last week, Nissan and Mitsubishi issued a joint media release detailing the findings of an internal investigation. In it, the companies exposed another alleged misdeed. Ghosn is accused of receiving “improper” payments from Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V., a Netherlands-based joint venture, of which the disgraced exec served as director.

From the release:

The joint investigation has confirmed that Ghosn entered into a personal employment contract with NMBV [Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V., a Netherlands-based joint venture] and that under that contract he received a total of 7,822,206.12 euros (including tax) in compensation and other payments of NMBV funds. Despite the clear requirement that any decisions regarding director compensation and employment contracts specifying compensation must be approved by NMBV’s board of directors, Ghosn entered into the contract without any discussion with the other board members, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa and Mitsubishi Motors CEO Osamu Masuko, to improperly receive the payments.

In addition, the investigation has also confirmed that soon after the announcement in 2016 that Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors would forge a strategic alliance, Ghosn, former representative director Greg Kelly and others began to explore the possibility of paying undisclosed compensation to Ghosn through an equally-owned Netherlands-based unconsolidated joint venture between the companies.

[Image: Nissan]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Thornmark Thornmark on Jan 24, 2019

    Seems Mr. Bean took Nissan down market and wrecked the brand. Sure that increased sales but also made whole segments unprofitable for better vehicles, like the Fusion, driving them out of the market. Now Nissan wants to undo his damage by restraining discounts, yet all the new Altimas I see are rental cars. How long did it take Cadillac to restore its place after it debased itself by seeking volume and profit over quality?

    • Cdotson Cdotson on Jan 24, 2019

      IF Cadillac ever restores its' place we'll be able to let you know. I thought it ironic Nissan partnered with Mitsubishi since Nissan now appeals to the same market that Mitsubishi did 18-19 years ago and we know how well that worked out for them.

  • IBx1 IBx1 on Jan 24, 2019

    Waiting for this circus of a Japanese coup to end; it's a shame he won't have the authority to fire them all once he gets out.

  • THX1136 Always liked the Mustang though I've never owned one. I remember my 13 yo self grabbing some Ford literature that Oct which included the brochure for the Mustang. Using my youthful imagination I traced the 'centerfold' photo of the car AND extending the roof line back to turn it into a small wagon version. At the time I thought it would be a cool variant to offer. What was I thinking?!
  • GregLocock That's a bodge, not a solution. Your diff now has bits of broken off metal floating around in it.
  • The Oracle Well, we’re 3-4 years in with the Telluride and right around the time the long term durability issues start to really take hold. This is sad.
  • CoastieLenn No idea why, but nothing about a 4Runner excites me post-2004. To me, they're peak "try-hard", even above the Wrangler and Gladiator.
  • AZFelix A well earned anniversary.Can they also attend to the Mach-E?
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