Ghosn to Pay Back Costs From Ritzy Versailles Wedding

by Steph Willems

Published: February 8th, 2019

ghosn to pay back costs from ritzy versailles wedding

While former Renault CEO (and ex-Nissan chairman) Carlos Ghosn is no longer living the high life, this wasn’t always the case. After performing an audit in the wake of Ghosn’s Nov. 19 arrest, Renault stumbled upon an improper use of a very exclusive venue, paid for with company sponsorship funds.

The event was Ghosn’s 2016 wedding, and the venue was France’s Chateau de Versailles — an opulent 2,300-room palace once home to kings and Napoleon.

While most Americans know Versailles as a lacklustre midsize Lincoln sedan, the car’s namesake is actually a building that doesn’t come cheap. Through a sponsorship agreement, Renault was allowed to host events at the palace. However, Renault claims a Marie Antoinette-themed wedding does not fall under the category of “corporate event.”

According to Bloomberg, Ghosn has agreed to pay back the cost of renting Versailles for his lavish wedding, which reportedly featured an impressive spread of ornate cakes. You’ll recall that Ghosn currently receives three bowls of rice each day in his sparse Tokyo jail cell.

Ghosn’s offer to repay the expenses, totalling around $57,000, comes a day after Renault said it planned to tip off French authorities that the former CEO received a “personal benefit” worth that amount. French newspaper Les Echos reports that Ghosn hosted another glitzy party at Versailles two years earlier, this one for his 60th birthday.

Observers were quick to note how swiftly the French national moved to make nice with his home country, versus his reaction to financial misconduct accusations by Nissan and Japanese authorities. Faced with breach of trust charges and indictments for allegedly underreporting personal income to the Japanese finance ministry, Ghosn steadfastly maintains his innocence.

The former exec recently resigned as Renault CEO and chairman after failing to secure bail, despite a myriad of promises on Ghosn’s part. Nissan and Mitsubishi ousted Ghosn as chairman shortly after his arrest.

[Image: Nissan]

#CarlosGhosn #Ghosn #LawAndOrder #Renault #Renault-NissanAlliance

Steph Willems

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5 of 18 comments

WildcatMatt on Feb 08, 2019

I think this is the first misdeed I've seen reported on Ghosn that is specific, substantial, and doesn't require interpretation by a specialist in international tax accounting to understand as wholly inappropriate. It will be interesting to see if more items like this come to light in the next few weeks.

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- SCE to AUX on Feb 08, 2019
  
  Same here. This one looks like he essentially faked an expense report. I wanted to believe he was above such shenanigans.
  
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- Noble713 on Feb 12, 2019
  
  @SCE to AUX Eh, I think I read somewhere else that Ghosn's wedding cost somewhere in the $1-2 million USD range, so $57k getting billed to your expense account when your company has special dispensation to rent the one-of-a-kind historical facility that you desire seems really minor, all things considered. If the whole wedding was paid for by the company as a "company event" I'd say his goose would be cooked.
  
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DriverDan7 on Feb 08, 2019

You know, Ghosn really seems like an ideal fit for the Trump administration.

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- Lockstops on Feb 08, 2019
  
  Holy f**king jesus aren't you clever!!
  
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