Ex-nissan chairman arrested for 4th time
Prosecutors say new case part of effort to protect evidence
Tokyo prosecutors arrested Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn on Thursday for a fourth time, on fresh allegations that cut short his brief time outside detention.
Early in the morning, Ghosn was taken from his apartment in Tokyo to the prosecutors’ office and then sent to the Tokyo Detention Center, the same facility where he spent more than three months following his arrest in November. He had been released on bail just a month earlier.
It’s unclear how long Ghosn may be detained under the latest arrest, which involves what prosecutors said was a new alleged crime.
“My arrest this morning is outrageous and arbitrary,” Ghosn said in a statement issued Thursday. “It is part of another attempt by some individuals at Nissan to silence me by misleading the prosecutors. Why arrest me except to try to break me? I will not be broken. I am innocent of the groundless charges and accusations against me.”
The prosecutors defended the move, saying the latest allegations are a new case requiring precautions to prevent Ghosn from destroying evidence. They allege $5 million in funds sent by a Nissan subsidiary to an overseas dealership were diverted to a company controlled by Ghosn.
“We now have a totally different case, and we are only doing what we think is right,” Shin Kukimoto, deputy chief prosecutor at the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office, told reporters.
“As a result of our investigation, we have a new case in which he must be detained, and we have appropriately obtained an arrest warrant from the court,” he said.
Ghosn, 65, was first arrested on Nov. 19 on charges of underreporting his compensation. He was rearrested twice in December, including on breach of trust charges. The multiple arrests prolong detentions without trial and are an oft-criticized prosecution tactic in Japan’s criminal justice system.
The allegations in the most recent arrest cover three money transfers from 2015 through last year, according to the prosecutors.