Nissan, Ghosn clash over Rio apartment filled with art, cash -filing

SAO PAULO/TOKYO, (Reuters) - A Rio de Janeiro apartment containing cash, art works and personal belongings of Carlos Ghosn has become the latest battleground between the indicted former Nissan Motor Co Ltd chairman and the automaker.

Ghosn is seeking to retrieve “personal belongings, documents, cash, objects and art pieces” from the beachfront apartment, which Nissan says it owns. The home could contain evidence of financial misconduct, according to a filing by Nissan in a Brazilian court last week. The legal dispute has been fierce in recent days, showing that Ghosn and Nissan are not just clashing in Japan, where the scandal first broke and where Ghosn was formally charged on Monday, but around the world.

Ghosn’s family obtained a favorable injunction last week that was then swiftly overturned, but Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported the family obtained another favorable court decision on Monday. A PR representative for Ghosn in Brazil declined to comment. A source at Nissan in Brazil on Monday afternoon said the Ghosn family still does not have access to the apartment.

The previously unreported court papers seen by Reuters show the extent of the legal dispute between Ghosn and Nissan over access to the apartment, one of several around the world he has been able to use. Nissan alleges Ghosn, who had been hailed for bringing the company back from the brink of bankruptcy, underreported his income by tens of millions of dollars and diverted corporate funds for personal use.