Versailles Party Video Makes Ghosn Look Like a 17th Century Monarch

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Auditors attempting to assess how down and dirty Carlos Ghosn’s spending habits were have reportedly become very interested in a YouTube video of a party held at the Palace of Versailles in 2014. While the clip doesn’t showcase any cash-fueled orgies or golden idol worship, it does present a extravagant party that was supposedly paid for by Renault-Nissan B.V. (RNBV). As you might recall, Ghosn’s repeated arrests in Japan were due to the alleged “mismanagement” of alliance funds.

Ghosn’s camp maintains that the event was held for business purposes — a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the alliance, which just happened to overlap with the ousted exec’s 60th birthday. Guests reportedly included a few Renault or Nissan executives scattered among roughly 160 celebrity attendees. You can watch the video yourself and decide whether or not it’s an egregious mishandling of corporate assets.

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

More by Matt Posky

Comments
Join the conversation
5 of 19 comments
  • ToddAtlasF1 ToddAtlasF1 on May 15, 2019

    My first consulting gig in the IB world was working on the integration of Bankers Trust/Alex Brown into Deutsche Bank. We had a 'NYC staff meeting' in the Empire Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt for a couple thousand guests, followed by luxuriously catered dinners in a battery of surrounding meeting spaces. The purpose of the meeting? To sound the alarm about the hundred million dollars in unaccounted for integration costs. I've been to a few high net worth weddings, none of which had anything on a Deutsche Bank party held to discuss squandering money. I kept my Deutsche Bank email active as long as I could after I'd moved on to Morgan Stanley just for the invites. Without them, I probably never would have eaten at the Boat House in Central Park or drank my weight in Bombay Sapphire.

    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on May 15, 2019

      Bombay Sapphire is a fine, fine gin. An excellent choice for any evening event.

  • Oldguy Oldguy on May 16, 2019

    As said previously, multi million dollar companies have budgets for this type of thing...and budgets must be spent. Nothing new here, totally a witch hunt.

  • Saturnotaku Saturnotaku on May 16, 2019

    Party like it's 1699.

  • Kericf Kericf on May 16, 2019

    The issue is that the Japanese are some of the last people on the planet that expect the CEO to be a good steward of Company resources. This flies in the face of expectations for them. US: Avg CEO makes 350 times that of avg employee Japan: 67 times France: 104 times https://www.statista.com/statistics/424159/pay-gap-between-ceos-and-average-workers-in-world-by-country/

Next