Media: Nissan ‘drives out’ Ghosn as chairman

TOKYO — Nissan board members have sacked disgraced Carlos Ghosn as chairman, local media reported on Thursday, following marathon talks over the future of the once-revered tycoon.

Public broadcaster NHK and business daily Nikkei both said the seven-member board had decided to remove the 64-year-old from the top of the firm he has led for almost two decades.

Nissan’s 19-year alliance with Renault, enlarged in 2016 to include Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors, has been rattled to its core by Ghosn’s arrest in Japan on Monday, with the group chairman and industry star accused of financial misconduct.

Ghosn had shaped the alliance and was pushing for a deeper tie-up including potentially a full Renault-Nissan merger at the French government’s urging, despite strong reservations at the firm.

Japanese prosecutors had said Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly, who has also been arrested, conspired to understate Ghosn’s compensation at Nissan over five years from 2010, saying it was about half the actual 10 billion yen ($88 million).

Ghosn and Kelly have not commented on the accusations.

Nissan’s board meeting was held at its headquarters in Yokohama. Media had reported that Renault executives were expected to join in by video conference.

Nissan executives have five seats on the nine-member board, Renault loyalists have two seats and the remaining two are held by unaffiliated outside directors, a former bureaucrat and a race driver.

With Ghosn and Kelly still in detention, neither of the men were not able to vote or defend themselves at the meeting. A majority vote by the remaining seven members of board will be sufficient to strip them of their positions.

Under Japanese law, suspects can be held for 20 days per possible charge without an official indictment. Additional charges can be tagged on, resulting in longer detentions. Neither has been charged so far.

Ghosn and Kelly will remain on Nissan’s board, regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s vote, as that decision will be up to the shareholders. But Mitsubishi Motors plans to remove Ghosn from his post of chairman at a board meeting next week.

Amid growing uncertainty over the future of the alliance, Japan’s industry minister and France’s finance minister are due to meet in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to stabilize it.

“For me, the future of the alliance is the bigger deal,” said the Nissan official, when asked about Ghosn’s arrest. “It’s obvious that in this age, we need to do things together. To part would be impossible.”