Court spurns Ghosn’s appeal
Rio apartment the new battleground
TOKYO: A Tokyo court yesterday rejected ousted Nissan Motor Co chairman Carlos Ghosn’s appeal to end his detention following his arrest last month on allegations of financial misconduct.
Ghosn has been held in a Tokyo jail since he was arrested on Nov 19 on suspicion of conspiring to understate his pay by about half of the actual 10 billion yen ($88 million) awarded over five years from 2010. He was officially charged on Monday.
He was also re-arrested on fresh allegations of understating his income for three more years through March 2018, with the Tokyo District Court extending his detention until Dec 20.
Ghosn’s lawyers filed an appeal to overturn the detention midday yesterday, but it was rejected by the court by evening.
“From indictment, cases typically take months to go to trial. In the past, suspects who have been indicted have seldom been freed on bail, but in recent years that has become more common,’’ said Masashi Akita, a defence lawyer.
It is unclear whether Ghosn would be freed on bail as some legal experts have said he may be a flight risk.
Nissan, which fired Ghosn as chairman days after his arrest, has said the misconduct is masterminded by the executive with the help of former representative director Greg Kelly, who was also indicted on Monday.
“Kelly will also remain detained until Dec 20,’’ the district court said.
Ghosn’s lawyer in Tokyo, Motonari Otsuru, could not be reached at his office for comment.
But Kelly’s lawyer, Yoichi Kitamura, said he was certain that his client’s innocence would become clear in court.
“The reason I’m confident is because there was no violation of the financial instruments and exchange law,” he said.
Ghosn’s arrest marks a dramatic fall for a leader once hailed for rescuing Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy.
The executive has been treated like others in detention, held in a small, chilly room, with limited opportunities to shower and shave, a person familiar with the matter has said.
Asked about criticism that Japanese prosecutors often try to force confessions from suspects, deputy prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, Shin Kukimoto, has said no such method is being used with Ghosn and Kelly.
Meanwhile, a Rio de Janeiro apartment containing cash, art works and personal belongings of Ghosn has emerged as the latest battleground between the indicted former chairman and Nissan.
Ghosn is seeking to retrieve “personal belongings, documents, cash, objects and art pieces” from the beachfront apartment, which Nissan owns. The company says the home could contain evidence of financial misconduct, according to its filing in a Brazilian court last week.
The legal dispute has been fierce in recent days, showing that Ghosn and Nissan are not just clashing in Japan, but around the world.
Ghosn’s family obtained a favourable injunction last week that was swiftly overturned.
A source at Nissan in Brazil said on Monday that the Ghosn family still did not have access to the apartment. Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported the family obtained another favourable court decision on Monday but a Nissan spokesman said the company believed this was incorrect.
The previously unreported court papers seen by Reuters show the extent of the legal dispute between Ghosn and Nissan over access to the apartment, one of several around the world he has been able to use.
Nissan alleges Ghosn, who had been hailed for bringing the company back from the brink of bankruptcy, under-reported his income by tens of millions of dollars and diverted corporate funds for personal use.
The Rio apartment contains three safes that Nissan has yet to open, according to the court filings.
“The apartment also has designer furniture, artwork and decorative objects,” it said.
The apartment was purchased by a Nissan subsidiary in late 2011 following the carmaker’s launch of a factory in the nearby city of Resende.
The apartment was bought on expectations that Ghosn’s trips to Brazil, where he was born and maintains citizenship, would “become more constant” after the factory opened, Nissan said in the filings.
The apartment is in the Copacabana neighbourhood, on a road directly facing Rio’s famous beaches. An apartment in the same building was listed online for 12 million reais ($3.07 million).