Carlos Ghosn held on 8 January in Beirut his first press conference after fleeing from house arrest in Japan. Her former head of Renault and Nissan, who was arrested in Tokyo in November 2018, explained why it decided to escape, and said he was the victim of a conspiracy of the managers of the Japanese company, who wanted to prevent him to merge the two automakers.
Japanese prosecutors accuse the Rut in breach of trust, falsification of financial reports on income, fraud. The consequence considers that a top-the Manager hid the remuneration received by him on the post of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nissan, declared with 2010 only half the proceeds — about $89 million Another charge relates to the coating Gun through Nissan for damages in the amount of 1.85 billion yen (about $21 million), incurred as a result of private investment. Soon after the arrest of Nissan and Renault, Ghosn fired from leadership positions, but he denies any wrongdoing.
In March last year, the gon, a citizen of Lebanon, France and Brazil – were released on bail of $8.9 million, spent in prison for 108 days. But in April, he was arrested again on new charges related to payments to the distributor of Nissan in Oman in 2017-2018 because Of their company, according to the prosecution, suffered a loss of $5 million At the end of April, the court again agreed to release the Rut on bail of $4.5 million, and since then he was under house arrest in Tokyo under strict control, surrendering your passport to the Japanese authorities. However, on 29 December the Rut on a private plane managed to escape to Lebanon.
As he put gon in a statement released after his arrival in Lebanon, he fled not from justice, but from “injustice and political persecution.” In Japan, the court in 99% of cases, took the prosecution, said the Financial Times. Before the press conference, Lebanese lawyers Ghosn said on his desire to stand trial in Lebanon. Between Lebanon and Japan have no extradition agreement. But the UN Convention against corruption allows countries to cooperate in the investigation, and lawyers Ghosn did not rule out such cooperation between the ministries of justice of Japan and Lebanon.
In early January, the Lebanese authorities received the Interpol request for the arrest of a Rut. However, they have not done so and claim that the businessman came to the country legally. Bloomberg reported that the Rut was two French passports – how often traveling citizen. One of them he moved to Lebanon.
the President of Lebanon Michel Aoun after meeting with the Ambassador of Japan, Takeshi Okubo on Tuesday, January 7, promised to cooperate with Tokyo. Okubo stated that the Japanese government “will never leave [escape] just like that.”
previous topic: In Turkey arrested seven people after escaping Carlos Ghosn told gon
At a press conference, Ghosn came together with his lawyer Carlos Abou Jaudon. He immediately said that he would not speak about the details of his escape from Japan, even though many are interested: “I’m here to tell you why I fled.” According to him, for more than 400 days Japanese investigators “tried to break [it], and not to provide justice.” As noted by rut, in prison interrogations lasted up to eight hours without a lawyer present and recorded, and an interpreter was available to him only once a week. At the same time, Japanese prosecutors have made it clear to him that he should plead guilty otherwise they will haunt not only him but also his family, says Ghosn. “I had no other choice to protect yourself and your family,” he said about his escape. According to Ghosn, if he hadn’t escaped, he would have waited for death in Japan.
Allegations are unfounded, said Ghosn, “Why are they contLily of the investigation? Again why they arrested me? Why are they trying so hard not to let me speak and present my facts?”
Ghosn also reiterated that it is not seeking to avoid justice, but wants to be able to protect your reputation. According to him, the reason for his arrest was the desire of some managers to Nissan to get rid of the influence of Renault on the Japanese company: “Some of our Japanese friends decided that the only way to do that is to get rid of me.” Ghosn called the names of these people, among them the then CEO of Nissan Hiroto Saikawa and other former and current Japanese managers. But he did not mention the names of Japanese officials who were allegedly involved in the plot, the FT notes. As writes the edition, it may be due to the fact that the Japanese government was warned about readiness to refute such statements.
Ghosn also suggested, citing data from Bloomberg that Nissan has spent $200 million on an investigation against him, “Nissan’s Market capitalization has declined by more than $10 billion after my arrest, or an average of more than $40 million a day for this period.”
previous topic: the Tokyo district public Prosecutor issued a warrant for the arrest of the wife of Carlos Ghosn
Before the press conference, January 7, the Japanese Prosecutor’s office has issued a warrant for the arrest of the wife of Gon — Carol, said the businessman. Investigators accused her of making false statements to the court in April 2019 Ghosn called a strange “coincidence” that they only did it now. Herself Carole Ghosn said Le Parisien that the Japanese Prosecutor’s office, therefore, probably hoping to put pressure on her husband before the press conference.
