Prosecutor's office in Nanterre said it issued the warrant for the former head of Nissan and Renault and four other people based on an investigation opened in 2019 into money laundering and abuse of company assets.
French carmaker Renault on Friday announced it would seek a cut in operating costs of 2 billion euros over the next three years, hinting at a major cull in jobs, after it reported net losses of 141 million euros in 2019, the first in a decade, due to lower sales and a falling contribution from its Japanese partner Nissan.
Former Renault chief executive and Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn's secret escape from Japan on December 29th, when he was allegedly smuggled out of the country in a musical instrument box by hired former special services veterans, was as dramatic as his arrest there one year earlier on charges of serious financial misconduct. But the manner of his flight bore all the hallmarks of the use over two decades by the one-time titan of the world’s carmaking industry of private security personnel, both to spy on his staff but also shareholders and board members. Mediapart's Matthieu Suc, author of a recent book detailing Ghosn’s seeming obsession with surveillance, reports.
The former Renault chairman and CEO, Carlos Ghosn, has travelled to Lebanon having fled from Japan where he was on bail facing charges of alleged financial wrongdoing. Ghosn, who was also chairman of Renault's Japanese partner Nissan, and who has always claimed his innocence, immediately justified the extraordinary move by saying he no longer wanted to be “held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed”. From the start of the affair Ghosn has claimed he is the victim of a plot, while largely avoiding details of the allegations against him. Mediapart's Matthieu Suc, author of a recent book on Renault, reports.
The former Renault-Nissan alliance boss Carlos Ghosn, who holds joint French, Lebanese andf Brazilian nationality and who has been detained in Japan awaiting trial since November 2018 over accusations of financial misconduct at the carmakers, under strict conditions that also barred him from leaving Japan, arrived in Lebanon by private jet from Turkey on Monday according to several media reports.
Carole Ghosn, wife of Carlos Ghosn who was arrested in Japan last November on accusations of financial misconduct, has appealed to US President Donald Trump to help end his continued detention in Tokyo by lobbying the Japanese prime minister at the forthcoming G20 summit.
French police on Thursday raided the residence near Paris of former Renault and Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, who is currently detained in Japan on alllegations of financial irregularity, as part of their investigation into a party he threw at the Palace of Versailles in October 2016 to celebrate his marriage, a benefit estimated as being worth 50,000 euros and which was in exchange for a philanthropy deal between the state-owned property and Renault.
Carlos Ghosn, the 65-year-old former chairman and CEO of carmakers Renault and Nissan, who was arrested last November in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, was on Monday charged for a fourth time, for allegedly enriching himself with $5 million at Nissan’s expense.
Lawyers acting for Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault-Nissan boss arrested over allegations of financial misconduct five months ago after landing in Tokyo in his private jet, and who was re-arrested last week on further suspicion of financial corruption, have released a video in which the former high-flying executive, 65, denies the accusations against him and denounces a 'very dirty game' of corporate intrigue.
Over the years there have been repeated scandals about the lavish top-up pensions awarded to the bosses of some of France's biggest firms, most recently involving Renault, Airbus and energy industry engineering firm TechnicFMC. Now, in a bid to end such controversies, the government's finance minister Bruno Le Maire is promising legislation to restrict the level of these lucrative perks. But as Mediapart's Martine Orange reports, the measure already looks as if it will be little more than window dressing.
