Auto tycoon Ghosn appears in Tokyo court handcuffed
TOKYO (AFP) – A once-revered auto tycoon who flew around the world in a private jet while running three massive car companies, Carlos Ghosn entered a Tokyo court on Tuesday handcuffed, with a rope around his waist and wearing dark green plastic slippers.
It was a stunning fall from grace for an executive dubbed “Le Cost Killer,” whose life was upended when Japanese prosecutors stormed his plane and arrested him on allegations of financial misconduct.
The hard-nosed executive forged an unlikely alliance of Renault-NissanMitsubishi Motors, creating an industrial behemoth numbering 470,000 employees, selling 10.6 million cars in 2017 from 122 factories around the globe.
In court, he laid out his achievements in turning around the struggling Nissan, describing them as “the greatest joy of my life, next to my family.”
“We created, directly and indirectly, countless jobs in Japan and re-established Nissan as a pillar of the Japanese economy,” Ghosn told the court.
Throughout proceedings, Ghosn spoke with a strong unwavering voice and showed no emotion, but seven weeks in a Tokyo detention centre had clearly taken its toll – he had lost a substantial amount of weight and his hair appeared greyer at the roots.
He mounted a detailed defence of the allegations against him – that he under-declared his income over eight years and sought to transfer personal investment losses to Nissan.
But the detention has already cost Ghosn two of his three boss jobs. He was quickly fired from the boards of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, following a months-long inquiry prompted by a whistle-blower.
It is not the first time Ghosn has hit the skids over pay.
He was among the highest-earning CEOs in France and one of the bestpaid foreign executives in Japan. His total compensation as head of the alliance reached some 13 million euros ($15 million) in 2017, according to the consultancy Proxinvest.
The French state, which owns a 15-percent stake in Renault, forced Ghosn to accept a 30-percent pay cut from the 7.25 million euros he took home as Renault CEO in 2017, calling the amount “excessive.”
“Compensation is more scrutinised today than in the past,” Ghosn told The Financial Times in June, but added: “You won't have any CEO say, 'I'm overly compensated.”’
However, Ghosn’s lavish lifestyle sparked some criticism in Japan, where executives tend to be less well remunerated than counterparts in the West.
Ghosn spent the first two decades of his career with French tyre-maker Michelin. After an early stint in his native Brazil, he was quickly promoted and credited with turning around its North American operations.
He was recruited by Renault in 1996 to work alongside then CEO Louis Schweitzer, where he helped restructure the former state-owned carmaker and steer it back to profitability.
Three years later, he was sent by Renault to head the newly acquired Nissan group with the challenge of doing the same thing within two years.