Comment: Focus on France

The disgraced former boss of French car giant Renault Carlos Ghosn this month claimed he was a victim of a conspiracy by ‘backstabbing’ executives at Nissan, after the Japanese carmaker had him sacked as chairman and arrested for allegedly spending almost €16 million of the company’s money on luxury property.

Ghosn, 65, was freed on bail in early March after spending 108 days in custody in Japan on multiple allegations of financial misconduct. He is accused of spending €3 million on a sprawling penthouse apartment in Tokyo, and millions more on sumptuous homes in Paris, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro and Beirut.

Then in early April he released a public video message protesting his innocence and threatening to ‘name the names’ of his former Nissan colleagues he claims have betrayed him. One day after his message was posted on the Internet he was re-arrested over further allegations that he siphoned off €4.4 million in Nissan funds for personal use, including the purchase of a yacht.

In the eight-minute video posted on his personal website, Ghosn said: “The first message is that I’m innocent. I am innocent of all the charges that have been brought against me.

“I am also innocent of all the accusations that came around these charges – that are all biased, taken out of context, and twisted to paint a personage of greed and a personage of dictatorship.

“I love Japan and I love Nissan. Nobody spends 20 years in a country, nobody spends 20 years in the leadership of a company without love and without attachment, and without engagement.”

He added: “This is a conspiracy. This is not about specific events, or greed or dictatorship. This is about a plot. This is about conspiracy. This is about backstabbing.

“There was fear that the next step of the alliance in terms of convergence and in terms of moving towards a merger would in a certain way threaten some people or eventually threaten the autonomy of Nissan.

“I have been the fiercest defender of the autonomy of Nissan and I made it clear that whatever steps are taken in the future that the autonomy would continue.”

Ghosn also said Nissan executives had failed to lead the company properly while he was in detention. He added: “We are talking about people who really played a very dirty game, but hopefully the truth will happen. Who was taking care of Nissan, who was taking care of the brand, who was defending the corporate value and corporate interests? This is very sad, and for someone like me it is sickening.”

After the release of the video, Ghosn’s wife Carole left Japan to try to win support for her husband from the French government, which has a 15 per cent stake in Renault, telling reports: “I don’t think [the French government] have offered him enough support and assistance. As a French citizen, it should be a right.”

However, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, told FranceInfo radio that he did not believe political intervention by France was the best way to help Ghosn.

Ghosn was due to remain in detention in Japan until April 14, when prosecutors can apply to hold him for an additional 10 days. After that they must release him unless they bring formal charges or file new allegations.

Asked to comment on the video, Nissan spokesman Nicholas Maxfield said: “Nissan’s internal investigation has uncovered substantial evidence of blatantly unethical conduct. The company’s focus remains on addressing weaknesses in governance that enabled this misconduct.”

Le cost-cuttter

Ghosn, who has joint Brazilian and Lebanese nationality, graduated as an engineer in Paris in 1974, and began his career in 1978 at Europe’s biggest tyre maker Michelin where over 18 years he rose from plant manager in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, to chief operating officer for Michelin North America.

He joined Renault as an executive vice president in 1996, and forged the alliance between Renault and Nissan three years later, then becoming Nissan’s fourth non-Japanese chairman.

He also served as chairman of Mitsubishi Motors, and became one of the world’s leading industry tycoons after helping forge an alliance between the three companies to create the world’s biggest car seller.

He won many admirers during his long career as one of the world’s leading auto executives, winning praise for his cost-cutting and vision to promote electric vehicles and low-cost vehicles. But he also attracted critics for his high salary, with shareholders voting down his pay in 2016, although the vote was nonbinding. Only by agreeing to a pay cut did Ghosn get shareholders’ approval at an annual meeting in Paris in June.

Ghosn’s fall from grace has now led to speculation about the future of the alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. France’s Bruno Le Maire and Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko are said to have spoken by telephone to ‘reaffirm the strong support’ of both governments to the union, which they described in a joint statement as ‘one of the greatest examples of Franco-Japanese industrial cooperation’. 

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