GHOSN TO SPEND CHRISTMAS IN JAIL
Prosecutors get permission to re-arrest him on new accusations of breach of trust
FORMER Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn will be spending Christmas and the beginning of next year behind bars after a court, here, yesterday extended his detention through to January 1.
The court’s decision is the latest twist in a rollercoaster saga that has gripped Japan and the business world since the car sector titan was arrested out of the blue here on November 19.
“Today, a decision was made to detain (Ghosn). The full term of the detention will expire on January 1,” said the Tokyo District Court in a statement.
This does not, however, mean that Ghosn can expect to taste freedom on New Year’s Day, as prosecutors can apply for a further 10-day extension as they quiz him on allegations of financial misconduct.
Authorities are pursuing three separate lines of enquiry against the 64-year-old FrancoLebanese-Brazilian executive.
They suspect he conspired with his right-hand man, United States executive Greg Kelly, to hide half of his income — five billion yen (RM184.3 million) — over five fiscal years from 2010.
They also allege he under-reported his salary to the tune of four billion yen over the next three fiscal years — apparently to avoid criticism that his pay was too high.
The third allegation is that he shifted a personal investment loss made at the height of the financial crisis worth more than US$16 million to the Japanese carmaker.
Prosecutors have pressed formal charges over the first allegation but not yet over the other accusations.
Ghosn’s case has seen several twists and turns since his stunning arrest on the night of November 19 as his private jet touched down at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
On Thursday, observers were caught wrong-footed as the court threw out a request from prosecutors to extend his detention over the second set of allegations (under-reporting his salary between 2015 and this year) in an almost unheard-of move.
This raised his hopes of a release in time for Christmas and he was reportedly gearing up to hold a news conference to put his side of the story for the first time. But the hopes were dashed on Friday when prosecutors sought and obtained his re-arrest over the new accusations of breach of trust.
“The accused was responsible for managing Nissan’s overall operations and for dutifully fulfilling his role as chief executive officer not to cause damage to Nissan and its subsidiaries but he took action that betrayed his role and caused financial damage to Nissan,” prosecutors alleged in a statement on Friday.