Do you want to know what “painful” sounds like? It sounds like the final “thump” of a body that has fallen from great heights down to the bedrock of the planet. Which is where the former CEO of Nissan, a man who had a forty-odd year career in the auto industry that had seen him as the head of a corporate alliance that saw the tie-up of Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault, found himself after yesterday’s absolutely damning announcement. Carlos Ghosn, and Nissan board director Greg Kelly were arrested on suspicion of violating financial laws by filing false statements. It is believed that Ghosn and Kelly collaborated to under-report Ghosn’s income by about $44 million dollars over a five-year period that ended in March 2015. The maximum punishment that the two could face for these charges in Japan is ten years in prison and up to $89,000 in fines.
That’s not the end of it, though. Nissan’s own statement pretty much tells the tale:
“Based on a whistleblower report, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (Nissan) has been conducting an internal investigation over the past several months regarding misconduct involving the company’s Representative Director and Chairman Carlos Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly. The investigation showed that over many years both Ghosn and Kelly have been reporting compensation amounts in the Tokyo Stock Exchange securities report that were less than the actual amount, in order to reduce the disclosed amount of Carlos Ghosn’s compensation. Also, in regards to Ghosn, numerous other significant acts of misconduct have been uncovered, such as personal use of company assets, and Kelly’s deep involvement has also been confirmed.”
Ghosn’s story of the transformation of Nissan, the successes of Renault, and the recent inclusion of Mitsubishi at the behest of the Japanese government has been a kind of “knight in shining armor” story. Around the turn of the millenium, the Renault-Nissan alliance took both companies into the black. Ghosn became the CEO of both Nissan and Renault in 2005 and in 2016, the alliance took a 34% share in Mitsubishi Motors. Naturally, with this kind of news, not only are the manufacturers worried, so are the governments. France is a shareholder in Renault and French President Emmanuel Macron has already noted that the government will be watching the stability of the alliance closely during this scandal. Nissan and Mitsubishi are both in the processes of removing Ghosn from the CEO positions.
The Nissan/Renault/Mitsubishi alliance is a huge thing to watch…they make one out of every nine cars sold around the world and have nearly half a million workers in over 200 countries. The shockwaves from this news will be radiating for some time to come.
Seems like he’s guilty before the trial even starts
Isn’t that the modern way of justice? Guilty in the public court before any evidence is presented to a jury, politicians included, seems to be the way things go nowadays.