Nissan chief arrest shock
Probe reveals ‘misconduct’ bombshell
NISSAN is set to fire boss Carlos Ghosn over alleged financial wrongdoing.
The Japanese firm revealed it had uncovered “significant acts of misconduct” by chairman Ghosn, one of the industry’s most powerful figures and credited with turning around Nissan’s fortunes.
The company – which runs the UK’s biggest car plant in Sunderland – said its investigation showed Ghosn had been under-reporting his pay packet to the Tokyo Stock Exchange “over many years”.
The investigation was triggered by a whistleblower.
Ghosn – who has been arrested – is said to have understated his earnings by a total of £34million over a five-year period.
Prosecutors are understood to have begun searching Nissan’s headquarters. The misconduct bombshell also relates to the chief’s alleged “personal use of company assets”.
Ghosn, 64, is also chairman and chief executive of Nissan’s French partner Renault which saw its share price plunge yesterday, wiping £1.4billion off its value. Nissan said that, because the misconduct “constitutes clear violations of the duty of care as directors”, it would “promptly remove” Ghosn along with senior executive Greg Kelly who, it claimed, had “deep involvement”.
Nissan chief executive Hiroto Saikawa said: “I feel despair, indignation and resentment.” Brazilian-born Ghosn, a French citizen, is a rare foreign boss of a company in Japan where he is said to enjoy rock star status. He has been an industry titan for nearly 20 years and helped revive Nissan’s fortunes in the early 2000s when the firm was facing bankruptcy.
Before that he was at Renault where he was known as the “cost killer” for slashing jobs and closing factories. He also made his mark in the UK with outspoken comments about the impacts of a hard Brexit on the Nissan plant and personally gained assurances from the Government that leaving the EU would not harm the firm.