Nissan, Renault facing fallout from chief executive’s arrest
PARIS — French carmaker Renault appointed a temporary leadership team on Tuesday to fill the gap left by the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, its chief executive who is facing questions of alleged financial misconduct, as a management crisis deepened inside the world’s biggest auto alliance.
Prosecutors in Japan are investigating claims that Ghosn, who is also chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, underreported his taxable income by half for several years.
Following an emergency meeting of the Renault board on Tuesday, the company said Ghosn would remain chairman and chief executive, but described him as “temporarily incapacitated.” The chief operating officer, Thierry Bolloré, will assume Ghosn’s dayto-day responsibilities until the situation is resolved, and the board’s lead independent director, Philippe Lagayette, will temporarily take over as chairman.
One of the auto industry’s most prominent executives, Ghosn was arrested Monday in Japan and held for questioning, but has not yet been charged. The prosecutor’s office in Tokyo said it could hold him for 72 hours but, with a court’s approval, could extend the detention an additional 20 days before it decided whether to indict him.
Ghosn created the alliance of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, and has been hailed for rethinking how vehicle manufacturers could share technologies and innovate in a competitive global market. His arrest stunned the sector and sent Nissan’s share price falling to a two-year low Tuesday.
But even as Nissan and Mitsubishi prepared to quickly sever ties with Ghosn, the French government, which is Renault’s biggest shareholder, was proceeding more cautiously.
The French economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, said Tuesday that Ghosn was “no longer in a position capable of leading Renault” because of his troubles in Japan.
But Le Maire said France had no evidence of the crimes that Ghosn has been accused of committing in Japan and would not call for his removal from the board of Renault, a French corporate icon.
Ghosn was detained after a whistleblower at Nissan made allegations that he had underreported compensation to the Japanese government. Another executive, Greg Kelly, whom authorities described as the architect of the scheme, was also arrested. Nissan said it was planning to strip Ghosn of his position as chairman when its board meets Thursday.