DASTARDLY DEEDS
Lawyers for former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn want charges dropped for collusion.
TOKYO: Lawyers for Carlos Ghosn said yesterday that they would request the dismissal of all charges against the former chairman of Nissan Motor Corp at his upcoming trial, saying his prosecution was based on “unlawful collusion.”
Ghosn, who was initially arrested last year, faces charges that he underreported his remuneration by several billions of yen over eight years at Nissan and committed aggravated breach of trust.
The trial is likely to start next April. Junichiro Hironaka, a member of Ghosn’s defence counsel, called the case against him “fabricated” at a press conference in Tokyo, held after a pretrial meeting between the court, lawyers and prosecutors to narrow down points of dispute.
“We have proof that the prosecutors collected evidence and conducted a plea bargain (with Nissan officials) unlawfully to press charges against Ghosn,’’ Hironaka said, although he did not elaborate.
The lawyers said in a statement the same day the prosecution against Ghosn “resulted from unlawful collusion between the prosecutors, government officials at METI (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), and executives at Nissan, who formed a secret task force to drum up allegations of wrongdoing” by Ghosn.
“Their goal was to oust Mr Ghosn in order to prevent him from further integrating Nissan and (partner) Renault (SA), which threatened the autonomy of one of Japan’s industry flagships,” they said.
While chairman at Nissan, Ghosn doubled as chairman and CEO of the French automaker, which holds a 43% stake in Nissan.
His defence counsel presented documents dated October 17, outlining their assertions to the Tokyo District Court prior to yesterday’s pre-trial session. Ghosn, who has been free on bail since April, also attended the court session.
The plea bargains struck between senior officials at Nissan and prosecutors were an abuse of the system since they were “reached with the objective” of ousting Ghosn “based on discussions that were held between METI officials and the Japanese senior management executives of Nissan,” according to the lawyers.
They also said prosecutors deployed Nissan employees to “unlawfully invade Mr Ghosn’s places of residence and illegally seize his personal property.”
On the charges that Ghosn underreported remuneration he was due to receive after retirement in Nissan’s financial statements, the lawyers said, “Nissan’s securities filings accurately disclosed the compensation Mr Ghosn was paid. Nissan never committed to pay, and Mr Ghosn never received any unreported compensation.”
On the accusation that Ghosn transferred personal losses from derivatives contracts to Nissan’s books and caused the automaker losses, they said the transactions “imposed no financial loss on Nissan.”
With regard to accusations that Ghosn had Nissan make payments to a Saudi businessman who had extended credit to him and had a Nissan subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates make an improper payment to a distributor in Oman, the lawyers said the payments were all “legitimate.”
Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who is accused of conspiring in the alleged underreporting of Ghosn’s remuneration, has also submitted a filing to the court, asserting innocence.
Nissan, which faces the same accusation of underreporting remuneration as a company, intends not to contest the charges.