Ghosn: Nissan, Renault lost over US$15b since his arrest

Fugitive auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn yesterday claimed carmaker Nissan lost US$40 million daily and Renault €20 million per day since his arrest in 2018.

“The market cap decrease of Nissan since my arrest is more than US$10 billion. They lost more than US$40 million a day during all this period,” he said here, where he arrived after skipping bail in Japan.

“Renault is not better, because the market cap of Renault went down since my arrest by more than €5 billion, which means €20 million a day.”

Ghosn, speaking publicly for the first time since his dramatic escape from Japanese justice, said he had been treated “brutally” by Tokyo prosecutors he accused of helping Nissan to oust him as chairman.

Wearing a blue suit and red tie and speaking defiantly, Ghosn told a packed news conference that he was not confident he would face a fair trial had he remained in Japan.

“You are going to die in Japan or you are going to have to get out... I felt like the hostage of a country I served for 17 years,” he told reporters crowded into Lebanon’s seaside Beirut press syndicate.

Others waited outside in heavy rain, including some Japanese media who had been excluded from the briefing.

“The charges against me are baseless,” he added, repeating his allegation that Nissan and Japanese authorities colluded to oust him following a downturn in Nissan’s fortunes and in revenge for French government interference in the carmaker’s alliance with Renault.

“Why have they extended the investigation timeline, why have they rearrested me? Why were they so intent on preventing me from talking and setting out my facts?” said Ghosn of the Japanese authorities.

“Why have they spent 14 months trying to break my spirit, barring any contact with my wife?” he added.