A while back, a disaster seemed to have struck the French. Three of its top employees were charged with spying on behalf of a Chinese automaker, an investigation was launched and in the end the heads of all three executives fell under Renault's ax.
The three executives, Michel Balthazard (vice-chairman of pre-engineering), Bertrand Rochette (head of pre-projects) and Matthieu Tenenbaum (deputy head of Renault's electric vehicle program) were accused of selling secrets to the Chinese. During the investigation, diplomatic skirmishes between France and China began, with the former accusing the latter of organizing the spy network.
Unfortunately for Renault, the entire scandal (which made the headlines for weeks in a row a while back) proved to be bogus. The three fired executives had no idea what spying meant, the company's CEO Carlos Ghosn was forced to publicly apologize and even promise to pay the three men what sources estimate to be EUR1.6 million in compensation for their ordeal.
That too wasn't enough. On Tuesday, the company's chief operating officer, Patrick Pelata, resigned as a result of the very poor way in which the entire scandal was handled. Having been with the car maker since 1984, the executive will not be ousted completely, but moved to a less important role within the Renault Nissan alliance. The name of his successor was not yet announced.
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