Nissan to seek $95M in damages from former chairman Ghosn

The first hearing for Nissan’s lawsuit against Carlos Ghosn is scheduled Friday in Yokohama, part of the Japanese automaker’s efforts to claim $95 million in damages from its former chairman.

Nobuo Gohara, an exprosecutor and critic of Japan’s justice system, said he and a team of lawyers will represent Ghosn in the civil case, which was filed in February by Nissan. The automaker is seeking to “recover a significant part of the monetary damages inflicted on the company by its former Chairman as a result of years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity,” it said in a statement at the time.

Ghosn, 66, was arrested in November 2018 on charges of financial misconduct and was facing a criminal trial in Japan until he made a dramatic escape to Lebanon at the end of December 2019. While the former auto executive may never face a Japanese tribunal, others in his orbit remain embroiled in legal proceedings.

Greg Kelly, the former Nissan director who was arrested on the same day as Ghosn and was charged with helping Ghosn understate his remuneration, has denied the allegations and is in the third month of his trial in Japan.