Photo: Bloomberg
As the investigation into the actions of the former auto executive Carlos Ghosn at the helm of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance continues, more and more acts of misconduct, as Nissan calls them, begin to surface.
In the latest such development, one that stops just short of sounding like an accusation of actual money stealing, Nissan said it found evidence of Ghosn dodging the rules to get a 7.8 million EUR ($8.9 million) payment from one of its subsidiaries.
The accusation refers to the Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V. (NMBV) unconsolidated joint venture, an entity set up in 2017 in the Netherlands in the wake alliance between the two companies a year earlier.
Nissan says that the executive, his alleged partner in crime Greg Kelly and “others” conspired as soon as they've heard of its creation to use the Netherlands-based joint venture as a front to pay undisclosed sums of money as compensation to Ghosn by bypassing the required approval from the board of directors.
After the formation of the joint venture, Nissan says, Ghosn entered a “personal employment contract with NMBV” and received the said payment just as he conspired to do, without the board’s approval.
Nissan says it “views the payments Ghosn received from NMBV to be the result of misconduct” and pledges to go after the former executive and get the company's money back.
Carlos Ghosn’s downfall began out of the blue in November last year, when he was arrested on charges of underreporting his compensation to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The charges branched out since to include accusations of personal use of company assets, aggravated breach of trust, and misuse of company funds.
Since his arrest, the executive has been held behind bars. If he is to be found guilty of financial misconduct, he could spend his next 10 years in a Japanese prison.
The accusation refers to the Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V. (NMBV) unconsolidated joint venture, an entity set up in 2017 in the Netherlands in the wake alliance between the two companies a year earlier.
Nissan says that the executive, his alleged partner in crime Greg Kelly and “others” conspired as soon as they've heard of its creation to use the Netherlands-based joint venture as a front to pay undisclosed sums of money as compensation to Ghosn by bypassing the required approval from the board of directors.
After the formation of the joint venture, Nissan says, Ghosn entered a “personal employment contract with NMBV” and received the said payment just as he conspired to do, without the board’s approval.
Nissan says it “views the payments Ghosn received from NMBV to be the result of misconduct” and pledges to go after the former executive and get the company's money back.
Carlos Ghosn’s downfall began out of the blue in November last year, when he was arrested on charges of underreporting his compensation to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The charges branched out since to include accusations of personal use of company assets, aggravated breach of trust, and misuse of company funds.
Since his arrest, the executive has been held behind bars. If he is to be found guilty of financial misconduct, he could spend his next 10 years in a Japanese prison.
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