New allegations against Ghosn concern payments to Saudi businessman

Two things can be true at once. Ghosn may be shady and corrupt and not worthy of being lionized.

And things like this are still flat out wrong, whether your surname is Ghosn or Horie:

Japanese prosecutors often arrest individuals repeatedly on different allegations linked to the same case. The practice allows them to hold suspects while they pursue their investigation and also means they can continue interrogations without the presence of a lawyer.

without the presence of a lawyer, that means no human right. and is allowed?????????????????

This is Niassan's trump card.

Couldn't they also find all of these wrongdoings even while Ghosn was out of jail. The fact that they're keeping him locked up, at least to me, only shows that they're lying.

With all these sudden allegations against Mr Ghosn it seems more than a little surprising that he could rise to be the CEO of three major car companies-very strange....

"Prosecutors know more about this than we do," one of the sources said.

So Nissan's accountants and financial folks knew nothing about this? Right....

For now, like all the other stuff, it's allegations without being able to hear the side on the defence. That means rumours and gossip.

@kouwaicoffee

less corruption?

Not looking good for Ghosn. Prosecutors uncover more “alleged” misdeeds every day. Confess and get less years in prison, Ghosn.

It would appear a court date is not available, so rumour and sneaky release of unproven gossip by unnamed sources would seem better than allowing a defence. Justice system and the prosecutors are scrambling to appear professional but failing badly.

This isn't news, gossip concerning financial misconducted is what this has all become, the news was back on 19 Nov '18 when the pair were arrested.

What does come to light is that the justice system has errant flaws in it which can be exploited legally here, but is a human right violation in the more civilized western countries!

Confess and get less years in prison, Ghosn.

Or prove with evidence? Easy to point a finger but it's another thing to actually prove it. And that is their job? If he weighs as much as a duck and a duck floats so does wood and what do we do with wood....burn it. He is a Witch. Not medieval at all?

Let him out on bail but insure he cant fly out of japan and give him his day in count. Japan is looking like North Korea in the worlds eyes! Reminds me to always avoid the "law" here!

It's hard to believe just how vague these charges are. So many statements like:

"Unavailable for comment"

> " It was not immediately clear what the SESC deemed illegal"

> "The sources declined to be identified"

> "Prosecutors know more about this than we do," 

> "It was not immediately clear what the SESC deemed illegal."

> "Reuters was not able to determine the identity of the bank which issued the letter of credit."

> "for reasons that weren't immediately clear"

It all seems a bit gray to me!

He is rich, corrupt and a flight risk. Keep him in jail. The prosecutors are doing their jobs. That is why there are new allegations. He will see his day in court when they have all proof. If let out, he will destroy evidence.

Anyone who believes the articles regarding the ALLEGED illegal activity of Ghosn and Kelly need to 'GROW UP'.

Nissan is a public traded multinational corporation. Records are kept, actions documented, annual third party audits are completed. When you review the allegations against Ghosn and Kelly the conclusion is that the Japanese prosecutors are viewing their actions from a Japanese perspective, not taking into consideration the higher level of accountability that a multinational corporation has.

Just wait til Ghosn and Kelly start their litigation with Nissan...

This is all lies and bs scam to ridicule Carlos, especially now that the wording in the local press here over emphasis negativity to the alliance and hints at buying back shares from Renault.... It's all trickery and to demolish the person who built Nissan's capital and confidence on the world stage.

Nissan can't buy back what Renault won't sell, if anything Nissan should be trying to keep Renault from acquiring anymore of Nissan.

Nissan Beware something wicked cometh your way, and I will giggle my self silly when it happens. I'm doing my part and sold all my Nissan Vehicles dirt cheap 2 GTRs and a NISMO Juke gone, was able to talk some of my family and friends into selling their Nissans:) Am now Lexus F series family with 2 purchased for Christmas.

@Goodlucktoyou nice post, had the prosecution done their job before detaining him would agree, but with out that confession they are clueless what to do. Bet there are a lot of meetings about what to do. He might well be guilty, he might well not be guilty. It's comical because it's not me. Reliance on a confession rather than proof is a bamboozling quandary for Japan. He is guilty of atrocious crimes if you believe TV but where is the proof.

So, who wants to bet the following happens:

-- The prosecutors file a request to extend detention before the end of the 10 day period.

-- The courts decline to approve the request.

-- Prosecutors rearrest Ghosn on some new vague charge and reset the detention clock.

This is all one big sham trying to extort a confession and prevent Ghosn from being freed from detention.

A complete abuse of the judicial system to silence Ghosn and bully him into submission.

A "red herring".

japan jurisdiction system is following the path of "ideological totalism".

ending result - system collapse.

Wow, this is real Japanese bad kabuki, Carlos was doing all this by himself ???.Who are U trying to kid Nissan Inc ???.When one back-stabbing do not stick, lets try another ???.Look, admit that Nissan was happy when no losses was incurred and now that saikawa thinks that it is time for him to be the next man , who could get what Carlos have.........................???. He tried another, saikawa was number 2 to Carlos, I am sure saikawa is involved.What I cannot understand is Why is he not in detention ???. Are the prosecuters not putting him in detention because he is Japanese ???. Wasting tax payers money & time ???. We good Japanese can see U, unfairness or racist is not good for anyone. Shame on poor attitude & bad judgement. Till saikawa is in detention, no good Japanese will be happy.

@Yubaru

Financial statements can be easily manipulated to the point that hardly anyone notices unless purposefully scrutinized.

I personally dont think Renault should take over Nissan , but imagine if Renaut started an aggressive takeover and brought up an addition share to get the magical, 51%. then Ghosn or not itll be "checkmate motherF" LOL

Continued questioning for weeks without the presence of a lawyer is against human rights! The prosecutors' intention is to break the spirit of the person being questioned, and force a confession to doing the crime. Japan is supposed to be a developed country, but log behind in human decency! What a shame!

@Tere Calantas

You think other developed countries are better in terms of human rights? Talking about "thinking outside the box".

Absolutely not the U.S., but I think there are a few that show some efforts in making society more humane in their judicial system.

This Carlos case is is abt a bad Japanese that is selfish, dirty, nasty, mean & back-stabbing. This case throws Japan & the Japanese people in to the world's human rights Stage. Which is long over-due. saikawa is just beginning to understand that his back-stabbing ways are going to hang him on a definite route. Now, we have to ask , why is he not in detention as he is the only one that reads , write and speak Japanese. Who in the pubic prosecutors office is , saikawa good friends with ???. Now public prosecutors who are salarymen did not understand that these are not good for ......................Who is taking side with saikawa and wasting good public money & time. All these people have no sense of good value of either time or human being. Public money, just spend it and waste time as well. All good Japanese are ashamed of these poor minded Japanese.

@marcelito

And no, it's their job to make sure the company or enterprise represents clean results on the surface to outsiders. But I get you are the type to believe in morally perfect businesses.

Don't you just feel like telling them " get it over with already " .

For fun, Renault should be buying as many shares of Nissan to increase their hold from 43% to 50.1%

Nissan is a public traded multinational corporation. Records are kept, actions documented, annual third party audits are completed.

.... Japanese prosecutors are viewing their actions from a Japanese perspective, not taking into consideration the higher level of accountability that a multinational corporation has.

Were Olympus and Toshiba not also publicly traded multinational companies? Does Nissan not use the same external auditors, Ernst & Young, which were severely fined for their incompetence involving these prior cases of cooking the books? Why would you assume it's more rather than less difficult to carry out a fraud at a multinational with countless subsidiaries and a complex web of tax structures and accounts around the world?

Guilty until charged. It is the law. The Carlos case is full of holes with only talk by saikawa. Whatever , it is a man have to be allowed to speak from his side. I smell big rotten rats here. Good Japanese feel it is very unfair that only one side is speaking. We good Japanese wants to prove what is accurate , a man life is at stake here. Why is saikawa not detained yet ???. World human rights group , it is time to move in on saikawa & his gang. Just guchi ???. It is totally unfair. I hope saikawa & his family have a bad bad bad dec 29th 2018 to Jan 2019. No man and his family enjoy while taking the happiness out of another man & his family. An eye for an eye.

For fun, Renault should be buying as many shares of Nissan to increase their hold from 43% to 50.1%

Nissan have 25% of Renault's shares. Why not Nissan buy more shares of Renault, maybe another 20 - 25%? NIssan is now able to buy more shares as it has enough fund, but why it doesn't buy more?

As another person online aptly put it (in my mind), it appears Saikawa & Co. decided to go ahead and criminalise what was an internal board dispute at a private company. Moral of this whole Ghosn story for me is simply: If you're a foreign national, don't work at a domestic Japanese company in Japan. Ghosn, Howard Stringer, Michael Woodford--just too many cases of foreign national CEOs having unhappy experiences at Japanese companies in Japan. If I were Christophe Weber (the CEO of Takeda), I'd be watching my back.

There's nothing new about financial malfeasance by company directors. It happens all over the world. Sympathy for Nissan directors who are under investigation may well turn out to be misplaced.

Couldn't they also find all of these wrongdoings even while Ghosn was out of jail. The fact that they're keeping him locked up, at least to me, only shows that they're lying.

One of the foreign reporters in Japan has claimed that when it looked like Ghosn might be released on bail, his family booked him a flight out of Japan. Good way to tell the prosecutors that Ghosn is a flight risk.

With all these sudden allegations against Mr Ghosn it seems more than a little surprising that he could rise to be the CEO of three major car companies-very strange.…

Not strange at all. Quite a number of people in Japan and other countries who have become top executives have been found to be crooks. Enron was considered a great company with great management until a whistleblower revealed that Enron was cooking the books.

What does come to light is that the justice system has errant flaws in it which can be exploited legally here, but is a human right violation in the more civilized western countries!

I checked British government advisories for Brits who get busted in France and Brazil, two of the countries where Ghosn hold citizenship. The official UK advisory for France says you can spend up to 24 months in pretrial detention. The guide for Brazil says 18 months. The guides also say that bail in France and Brazil is unlikely since foreign nationals are considered a flight risk.

Anyone who believes the articles regarding the ALLEGED illegal activity of Ghosn and Kelly need to 'GROW UP'.

Using “alleged” is politically correct. Even if someone looks guilty as hell, you have to say “alleged” to be politically correct and avoid possible litigation if the person is later proved innocent.

Financial statements can be easily manipulated to the point that hardly anyone notices unless purposefully scrutinized.

Nissan employed the London-based Ernst & Young. This is the same firm that did not find the accounting “irregularities” at Olympus and Toshiba.

Continued questioning for weeks without the presence of a lawyer is against human rights!

Depends on the country. While western European countries generally allow you to consult with a lawyer, they do not necessarily let the lawyer sit with you every minute of interrogation. Further, if you cannot afford a lawyer or your public defender is useless, a guarantee of access to a lawyer ends up being worthless.

Please name another " developed country" with a legal system that can keep accused locked up without charge practically indefinitely ?

Most developed countries allow indefinite detention for some offenses.

If you're a foreign national, don't work at a domestic Japanese company in Japan. Ghosn, Howard Stringer, Michael Woodford--just too many cases of foreign national CEOs having unhappy experiences at Japanese companies in Japan.

A CEO can have “unhappy experiences” anywhere in the world. American business commentary about Stringer at SONY tends to be very critical of him.

https://247wallst.com/investing/2013/03/11/howard-stringer-who-ruined-sony-retires/

https://www.cnet.com/news/why-sony-needed-to-swap-out-its-ceo/

"A CEO can have 'unhappy experiences' anywhere in the world. American business commentary about Stringer at SONY tends to be very critical of him."

I wasn't referring to CEOs in general. I was referring to foreign nationals serving as CEOs of companies in the country where that company is headquartered. It's nice to know, I guess, that you can have an unhappy experience as the CEO of a company in Canada or Britain or South Korea or wherever. But I would still NEVER work for a domestic Japanese company in Japan as a foreign national, at the executive or managing partner or analyst or whatever level. And I know several working professionals in Japan, citizens of other countries and who work in a variety of industries (financial services, automotive industry, natural resources, etc.) who feel the same way. They love living in Japan, most of them are married to Japanese natives, and they'll likely never leave Japan, but over their dead bodies will they ever work (again) for a domestic Japanese company. They all work for foreign-affiliated companies and couldn't be paid enough money to be convinced to move to a domestic Japanese employer. And most of them are men, so it's not like gender discrimination is the issue for them.

This doesn't strike me as a common pattern worldwide. I could be wrong, but are there foreign nationals who have lived for years or decades in (for example) Germany, absolutely love the place, are married to German natives, but would never ever consider working for Deutsche Bank or Volkswagen because they dread the German corporate culture?