Golden parachute for Ghosn ditched

Renault SA plans to scrap a golden parachute of about $12.4 million for jailed former chief Carlos Ghosn, avoiding a politically explosive payout at a time of Yellow Vest protests across France.

Ghosn won’t benefit from a noncompete agreement that would have paid him two years’ compensation, the automaker said Wednesday. Renault also plans to withhold stockbased pay awarded from 2015 to 2018 that was conditional on his staying at the company.

Until his Nov. 19 arrest on allegations of financial misconduct, the jet-setting executive led an automotive empire that stretched around the globe.

He ran not only Renault as chairman and chief executive officer but also served as chairman at Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., its alliance partners. He quit Renault last month.

The noncompete agreement would have been worth upward of $6 million, while 100,000 performance-related shares granted in 2015 that would have vested this week have a current market value of about $6.42 million.

He would also have been entitled to millions of euros worth of additional shares in the future had he remained at the company.

Handing the imprisoned former executive a huge check would have been embarrassing for the French state, which holds 15 percent of Renault. President Emmanuel Macron has been under attack for months from protesters complaining that the government favors the rich and isn’t doing enough to improve the lives of ordinary people.

Questions over his pay at Nissan led to Ghosn’s fall from grace. After a monthslong internal investigation that was kept from Renault, the Japanese company alleged that he had understated his income for several years. He was arrested in Tokyo and has been in custody ever since.

The Japanese carmaker on Tuesday took the unusual step of booking an $83 million charge to reflect payments due to Ghosn that he accumulated for the eight years ending in 2017.

Ghosn has said that the payments weren’t certain, so didn’t need to be declared.

In Tokyo on Wednesday, Ghosn changed his legal team, hiring Junichiro Hironaka to help him with the “trial phase” of his case.

His previous team failed to win bail for Ghosn as he awaits a trial that could be months away.