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Ousted Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn 'flies to Lebanon'
Ousted Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn 'flies to Lebanon'
(about 2 hours later)
Ghosn had been under strict bail conditions requiring him to stay in Japan
Ghosn had been under strict bail conditions requiring him to stay in Japan
Carlos Ghosn, the ousted boss of the Renault-Nissan car-making alliance who was awaiting trial in Japan, has flown to Lebanon, France’s Les Echos newspaper has reported.
Carlos Ghosn, who is awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct, has left Japan and arrived in Lebanon, according to media reports.
The newspaper cited its own unnamed source and a report in Lebanese newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour late on Monday. There was no immediate confirmation from official sources.
It was not clear if the former Nissan chairman, who was out on bail, had fled Japan or if his defence lawyers had negotiated new bail conditions that allowed him to leave the country.
It was unclear how Ghosn, who holds both French and Lebanese citizenship, would have been able to leave Japan, where he has been under strict court-imposed restrictions on his movements.
The Wall Street Journal reported Ghosn did not believe he would receive a fair trial in Japan. The former executive, who rescued Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy two decades ago and masterminded a successful alliance with Renault, was “tired of being an industrial political hostage”, it quoted an associate as saying.
Ghosn was arrested shortly after his private jet touched down at a Tokyo airport on 19 November 2018. Nissan then sacked him, saying its internal investigations revealed misconduct ranging from understating his salary while he was its chief executive, and transferring $5m of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest.
Ghosn’s original bail conditions required him to surrender his passport and remain at a court-designated house in Tokyo preparing for his trial, which was expected to begin in April next year. He was forbidden from seeing his Lebanese-born wife, Carole Nahas, without special permission, and had limited internet access.
He faces four charges – which he denies – including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East.
Ghosn, who has French and Lebanese citizenship, arrived in Beirut from Turkey on a private plane, Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria said, adding that he was expected to hold a news conference in the coming days. “Ghosn reached Beirut, but it’s unclear how he left Japan,” Agence France-Presse quoted a Lebanese security official as saying.
Ghosn’s lawyers have asked a court to dismiss all charges against him. They accuse prosecutors of colluding with government officials and Nissan executives to oust him to block any takeover of the automaker by French alliance partner Renault, of which Ghosn was also chairman.
Japan’s public broadcaster NHK quoted a member of Ghosn’s defence team and prosecutors as saying they were unaware that Ghosn may have left the country.
He spent a long period in detention while awaiting trial, but more recently was allowed out, subject to stringent bail conditions, which required him to stay in Japan.
The 65-year-old, who was born in Brazil, was arrested in November 2018 shortly after arriving in Japan on his private jet. He faces four charges, including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East.
Before his shock arrest, Ghosn had been a titan of the global car industry. He was the first person to lead two Fortune 500 companies at the same time, and was also notable as one of the few foreign chief executives of a major Japanese company.
Ghosn, who has consistently denied the charges, spent more than 120 days in detention before being released on bail for a second time in late April. His treatment drew international criticism and claims that prosecutors were subjecting him to “inhuman” treatment.
He became celebrated in the country’s popular culture, having a manga comic book version of his life published and rice sculptures of his face sold in bento lunchboxes to Japanese businessmen.
Ghosn said in a video message in April that he had been unfairly portrayed by “backstabbing” Nissan executives as “a personage of greed and a personage of dictatorship”.
Born in Brazil to Lebanese parents, he studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, an elite college which fills the upper echelons of French public and private bodies, before joining tyre manufacturer Michelin. By 36, he was chief executive of the firm’s North American operations, before being poached by Renault in 1990.
He said he had been the victim of a boardroom coup, accusing former colleagues of targeting him in an attempt to derail a closer alliance between Nissan and Renault.
He gained a reputation there for his ruthless management style, earning the nickname “Le Cost Killer”, and when Renault took a 43.4% stake of Nissan in 1999, he repeated the trick, slashing employee numbers to effect a rapid transformation of the company’s fortunes.
He took over the running of Mitsubishi too in 2016, when the carmaker, hit by a fuel economy fixing scandal, joined the alliance, creating the world’s top-selling passenger car manufacturer through linked shareholdings.
Ghosn was well recompensed for his efforts: according to Reuters, he earned $16.9m in the financial year to 2018. His lavish lifestyle encompassed homes in Paris, Tokyo and Brazil, and he crisscrossed the globe in executive jets for work and pleasure.
In 2016 he celebrated his second marriage with a party at Versailles which, according to the Los Angeles Times, was inspired by Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette.
The family took over the former royal palace in the Parisian suburbs and staffed it with actors in period costumes serving food that nodded to the tastes of the notoriously extravagant French queen.
His wife told Town & Country magazine that: “We wanted it to feel as if we were inviting guests into our home – nothing too studied.”
