Ghosn accuses Nissan executives of ‘backstabbing’ plot

The video, recorded shortly before Ghosn was rearrested by prosecutors in Tokyo last week, did not however point the finger at specific individuals, with the tycoon’s lawyer saying it had been edited to remove names.

The video was the latest twist in a rollercoaster case that has defied expectations since the shock arrest of the 65-year-old last November.

In the brief recording, played by his lawyers at a press conference, Ghosn appeared at a desk in a white shirt and black suit jacket and repeated that he was “innocent of all the charges that have been brought against me.”

He denounced a “conspiracy” against him and said events had been “twisted in a way to paint a personage of greed, a personage of dictatorship.”

“This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is about backstabbing,” he said in the video.

He said the “conspiracy” was motivated by “a 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.”

In addition to heading Nissan, Ghosn also oversaw the alliance that groups the automaker with Renault and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors. He has previously suggested that concerns at Nissan about closer integration led to his arrest.

But while Ghosn’s wife Carole had said the auto tycoon would name “the people responsible” in the video, his lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka told journalists that the defence team had opted to edit specific allegations out of the recording.

Ghosn was rearrested by prosecutors last week while out on bail in Tokyo after they announced they were investigating new allegations against him.

A court has extended his detention until April 14, when prosecutors can apply to hold him for an additional 10 days before they must release him unless they bring charges or file new allegations.

– Fresh allegations –

Prosecutors said Ghosn had been detained over transfers of Nissan funds totalling $15 million between late 2015 and the middle of 2018 to a dealership in Oman.

They suspect around $5 million of these funds were siphoned off for Ghosn’s use, including for the purchase of a luxury yacht and financing personal investments.

Prosecutors accuse Ghosn of having “betrayed” his duty not to cause losses to Nissan “in order to benefit himself.”

Ghosn already faces three formal charges: two of deferring his salary and concealing that in official shareholders’ documents, and a further charge of seeking to shift investment losses to the firm.

Ghosn spent 108 days in a detention centre in northern Tokyo before being dramatically released on bail of around $9 million on March 6, emerging from incarceration dressed in a workman’s uniform and face mask in an apparent bid to avoid the media.

He then lived in a court-appointed apartment in Tokyo without commenting on his situation despite huge international and Japanese media interest in his case that has shocked and surprised from the beginning.

However, just as reports began to surface that he could be rearrested, Ghosn emerged on Twitter to announce plans to hold a news conference on April 11.

His rearrest came just days after news that Renault, which Ghosn also once headed, had handed French prosecutors documents showing suspicious transfers worth million of euros authorised by the auto tycoon.

Shortly after his arrest, his wife Carole — who had been living in Tokyo with Ghosn while he was on bail — left Japan.

She told a French newspaper she had been forced to flee Tokyo with support from the French ambassador and was able to use her US passport after having to surrender her Lebanese one to prosecutors.

Prosecutors reportedly wanted to question her on a voluntary basis over suspicions company money allegedly misused by Ghosn could have transited through a business that was run by his wife.

Nissan shareholders on Monday voted to remove Ghosn from the board, along with his right-hand man Greg Kelly, who also faces charges in Japan.

He was replaced by Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard.