crime

Ghosn used Nissan-Mitsubishi venture to inflate pay: lawyers

58 Comments
By Bart H Meijer and Gilles Guillaume

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58 Comments
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Different day.... same story.

11 ( +20 / -9 )

Enough already give it up Nissan

2 ( +21 / -19 )

A straw! a straw! for my honour, Nissan, Mitsubishi please Carlos give them 3 magic beans then they will be happy. Just goes to show how a man who saved a Japan icon is now hounded after a miss calculation by inept prosecutors, who jumped the gun from a secret internal report containing no evidence just innuendo from Nissan. It looks like smells like tastes like think it might be .

2 ( +18 / -16 )

Perhaps some of Ghosn's wheeling and dealings were not above board, but it seems more like he is being penalised for his success than prosecuted for unscrupulous business practices.

11 ( +26 / -15 )

Seriously? The companies legal team missed this? This has to be pure BS.

16 ( +27 / -11 )

And he had all the power to determine his own pay without anyone knowing what was going on.

21 ( +26 / -5 )

Leave the guy alone. So much venom! A guy is getting paid ¥1 million for a day studying cheese. No one says anything.

-4 ( +7 / -11 )

You're witnessing the fall of the Nissan empire

5 ( +15 / -10 )

It hurts doesn’t it. Time to get over it.

1 ( +9 / -8 )

Just goes to show how a man who saved a Japan icon is now hounded after a miss calculation by inept prosecutors, who jumped the gun from a secret internal report containing no evidence just innuendo from Nissan.

The only people I know who describe Nissan as an icon are foreigners. If there is a Japanese auto company that is an icon, it is Toyota.

Doing something good 18 years ago does not preclude the possibility that you later turn out to be a bit crooked.

Ghosn paid a one million dollar fine in the US and was banned from corporate positions for 10 years. Nissan was fined 15 million dollars. The US Securities and Exchange Commission charges were only part of those brought against him in Japan.

US authorities have proven that they will go after Japanese companies and executives of Japanese companies without any cooperation from Japanese authorities whatsoever.

You might also consider the fact that even Renault has not said, "We want him back. We can't function without him." I can read just enough French to know that he was intensely disliked within Renault. French trade unionists have said they were quite happy to see him get busted in Japan.

-7 ( +9 / -16 )

If there is criminal actions, the way the whole thing has been mishandled so badly by Japanese prosecutors it's overshadowing his "alleged" crimes and exposing Japan's inquision/hostage Justice system to the world. Not saying he gets a medal but at some point Karma pays out. And it's paying out on Japan's Medieval legal caniptions.

2 ( +12 / -10 )

pouring over payments

Well that will help.  Depending on what they are pouring.

Wouldn't surprise me if he is a little bit dodgy and felt he could take more than his asgreed pay - so many of these bigwigs are.  And his subsequent behavior doesn't exactly speak of sound judgement or belief in his case.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

My first car in 1990 was a Nissan. Sold it a year later. Good riddance!

The only Japan car company icon is a TOYOTA! Enjoying it since 2005.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Good grief, Nissan! Put an end to the leaks and send Lebanon your evidence (before the deadline expires) if you really want to try Ghosn in a court of law. Resorting to ‘he said/she said’ is futile and does nothing to improve your company’s image.

4 ( +12 / -8 )

Nissan is just so pathetic. Can't wait for the book and film for a good laugh!

1 ( +10 / -9 )

Nissan-Mitsubishi lawyer Eelco Meerdink said there was evidence that Ghosn made the alliance pay a personal French tax debt of 498,000 euros in 2018.

Nissan spent 200 millions dollar to get rid of him that's include from lawyer to people who follow him everywhere while he was in detention. They won't bother just put another millions for lawyer in Europe but at least this time Ghosn can arrange his defense.

US authorities have proven that they will go after Japanese companies and executives of Japanese companies without any cooperation from Japanese authorities whatsoever.

They did that while he was in detention. He can not defend himself good enough even SEC finally give a verdict. Everything is provided by Nisan at that time.

I can read just enough French to know that he was intensely disliked within Renault. French trade unionists have said they were quite happy to see him get busted in Japan.

Trade unionists? In order to survive alliance they need to be able to share everything and finally stream line things. That including production process, that's why trade unionists won't like him

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Hahaha

No evidence from Nissan lawyers. Don't want to give them.

Allegations only.

As if he could just click to transfer 9.2 millions on his account on his own.

Patethic.

@Henny Penny

French trade unionists have said they were quite happy to see him get busted in Japan.

Problem in France is most Unionists are red, and always against governance, hardly ever progressive. Vast Majority of French people don't support Unionists and don't consider that they represent them.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

J-prosecutors and J-gov are desperate and pathetic! No matter what they have presented it all looks like:

PRETTY PLEASE BELIEVE ME! JUST PLEASE BELIEVE ME! I CAN'T TAKE THE EMBARRASSMENT!

They know their evidence is weak as they get closer to their deadline with Lebanon, so they want to demonize Ghosn with these leaks in public before they get denied that extradition, and the Japanese citizens with no connections to criminal system find out about the shadiness of J-prosecutors..

They will just keep trying with Interpol I guess!

3 ( +12 / -9 )

Nissan may have handled this really badly, but my sense is that CG is also a bit of a spiv when it comes to money.  no surprise if he took more than his due.  Him running away doesn't feel like he was confident of acquittal.

Nissan still make some very decent cars (GTR, Z cars) and have some very innovative tech (LEAF).

Any movie of this whole debacle will be a giant yawn fest.  Unless they get Rowan Atkinson to play CG in a comedic way.

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

lawyers and allegations aren't proof. Japan, the more you know...

1 ( +6 / -5 )

A Japanese acquaintance told me Ghosn broke laws and should face justice. I said which laws did he break?

She couldn't tell me.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

Next, there will be leaks from the press that Ghosn's smoke breaks were too long, and he would steal extra creams for his coffee!

5 ( +10 / -5 )

The courts will decide. Nobody on here has any details about the information.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

And yet another allegation. Seems no end can be seen for the stories of his corrupted acts under his own empire which seem having no compliance, no internal checking functioning. Who has made the company this lawless?

Of course it is CG himself.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Ghosn won't be making a movie about his escape - he's got enough materials to produce a several seasons of TV series! The best parts? Nissan and the Japanese prosecutors will supply all the materials Ghosn will ever need lol

3 ( +7 / -4 )

ghosn came ghosn ate ghosn ran how beautiful

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I will NEVER buy a Nissan vehicle again.

Never.

And I am making it my mission to persuade all my family and friends (both inside and outside Japan) to never buy a Nissan, too.

This company is corrupt.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

"Here's the deal: I'm going to work 90 hours a week to run a multinational conglomerate worth tens of billions of dollars, requiring my keeping of residences in 3 or 4 different countries and my constant traveling between them? Well then my compensation package is centered on what I TAKE HOME. When all those countries I work in try to get me for taxes in each location, YOU cover it. My take-home pay will be this set amount; double and triple taxation is a business expense because of where this job requires my presence."

Fair enough. Good on him.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

"We don't dispute that Mr Ghosn received a good salary", attorney Roeland de Mol said.

...So they admit that he took lots of money (legally and/or illegally)

"But he had the heavy task of getting French and Japanese companies to cooperate. He didn't retire to go play golf after he stepped down as Nissan CEO."

....So basically they just say: Yeah... he was still employed by them, so he still worked. Oh, and he's really wonderful he did not play golf. Oh, oh, and he worked hard so he should get paid a lot. But their multi-million salary was not enough for him so he paid himself more.

His legal team has offered no solid arguments at all. They are gasping at straws.

This battle will go on for years maybe. Nissan has more money than him. So they'll drown him in legal expenses.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

expat Today 12:06 pm JST

If you have a compelling case, you should have put it forward in a timely manner. You can't hold someone in jail on the basis of an allegation or theory while you spend years trying to find evidence to back it up. Ask the rest of the developed world how this works.

Years were not used to develop his case. If anything, it seems like the primary block to a speedy trial, at least by the second half of 2019, is Ghosn's lawyer Takano, who was asking the court to go on a fishing expedition (those motions take time to process). This indicates that there was already quite a solid case. Generally, defendants want speedy trials, so Takano should not have gone on fishing expeditions unless it was the only hope for his client's case.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

@Kazuaki Shimazaki

Care to give some proof of that?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

These little backstabbing pieces are t even worth reading....

2 ( +7 / -5 )

If the Japanese state had sufficient evidence to convict Mr Ghosn then they would not have arrested him multiple times, threatened his family,attempted to extract a confession under duress etc

BTW it seems that a movie is in the works too!

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Nissan will dig until bankruptcy which should happen in the near future.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

justaskingToday 03:27 pm JST

http://blog.livedoor.jp/plltakano/archives/65949422.html

Takano actually puts up those requests on his own blog.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I am quite amazed at how Carlos was able to do all that shady stuff all by himself.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

It just seems like the Japanese prosecutors spend all their time contriving more accusations rather than focusing on proving the ones they already have.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Accusations, accusations and accusations, as the public we wonder 1).why the japanese prosecutors have so much time chasing after Carlos , when his japanese counterparts like saikawa is still roaming as a free man ???.Then we wonder , 2).why does the board of nissan japan have so much time just focusing on Carlos ???.Then 3rd point, where are all these time and money coming from ???.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

He was , perhaps, frustrated with his own net income and spent whole those years in Japan for how to dodge Japanese Tax.

Like I said a few times, he is the one to be consulted with to maximize your intakes, if you are in the similar position in Japan. You expats, shake and sleep

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Hey, this isn't the leaks that J prosecutors, Renault, or Nissan have long poured over. It is is the first time I ever see the court reporting. No rumor mongering, but legal exchange between Defendant and Litigators in a Dutch court. I am not certain whether this is a civil or penal dispute. sounds more like a civil one, where judgement standards are lower for the litigators. At long last, we see the iceberg of evidences that each side say that they have abundantly.

It sure took them a long time to finally face each other in court since the Pearl-harbor arrest in November, 2018. I will keep in mind that the applicable law reported here is not J but Dutch law which comes under jurisdiction of the European Union, Brussels. No more belly inflating of dad frogs or the pot calling kettle black. I agree it is messy as any divorce is. But that's a worm of cans J taxpayers-bearing authorities opened. Why don't Japanese taxpayers complain of tax-money being roamed into corporate divorce? I bet a 100 million yen goes down the drain as a month goes by. Translators and interpreters have a field day. Stay away, a couple-of-liners.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Best story of the new year. Go Ghosn and win! This section of the Japanese justice system, where prosecutors go after "accused" instead of working with the police just needs to change.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

 The US Securities and Exchange Commission charges were only part of those brought against him in Japan.

US authorities have proven that they will go after Japanese companies and executives of Japanese companies without any cooperation from Japanese authorities whatsoever.

That said, the US SEC is hardly a good representation of justice. Notoriously corrupt, they ignore some of the worst criminals while they shake down others who may be unaware they even committed a crime - without respect for nationality or national borders. They consider their jurisdiction to be the entire world.

Common sense tells us that a man who barely speaks any Japanese is not going to be able to do what he was accused of without the help and guidance of many Japanese in the company. Expats who are not fluent in Japanese rely on their accountants and lawyers to take care of these issues.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

The so-called fact reported by Henny Penny: "Ghosn paid a one million dollar fine in the US and was banned from corporate positions for 10 years. Nissan was fined 15 million dollars. The US Securities and"Exchange Commission charges were only part of those brought against him in Japan."

I am not sure about the 15 million dollars the kettle paid in the US, but one million buck the pot paid was not "fine," as described, but the non-admittance settlement between US authorities and ex-chief. The super-legal settlement cannot be called FINE. Correct me if I am wrong about non-admittance resolution or arbitrary settlement. It sounds like alimony payment: You go your way, I go my way. No good riddance.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I'm too concerned about the coronavirus to give a damn about this case anymore. He's gone and he's not coming back.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Common sense tells us that a man who barely speaks any Japanese is not going to be able to do what he was accused of without the help and guidance of many Japanese in the company. Expats who are not fluent in Japanese rely on their accountants and lawyers to take care of these issues.

I see it as he has been more interested in engaging in improvements in his tax-evasion techniques rather than

in his Japanese skills despite HIS 18 YEARS as CEO of Nissan. That says all. HE DIDn't CARE

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Has anybody taken a look at a blog kindly posted by Kazuaki ShimazakiTo? The blog contained an explanation of Hostage Justice in English by a defense council of Ghosn's lawyers: Mr Takashi Takano uploaded his paper presented at the Asian Law and Society Association's Annual Meeting (Osaka, Dec 14, '19). Now I understand what kind of torture CG went through with prosecutors blatantly infringing the constitution, penal code and code on criminal procedures. I run into a question of Const Art 37 Para 3. Please put up with Google's translation:"(sic)A criminal defendant may in any case request (sic) a qualified attorney. If the defendant cannot request (sic) this on his own, the State will (sic) attach it."

The English Art 37 Para 3, effective during 1945-51 and foreign ministry posted its text in Official Gazette in the 50s, posted by both Houses says: "At all times the accused shall have the assistance of competent counsel who shall, if the accused is unable to secure the same by his own efforts, be assigned to his use by the State." Google's 2 sentences have little to do with the bicameral translation. No wonder:CG kept saying that he was no terrorist up against the sterile Sixth Amendment born here.

The reason I persist in drawing JT readers' attention to the single paragraph was I have long questioned efficacy of Article 38' three paragraphs: No compelling confession; voiding any confession extracted after prolonged confession, and no convicting based solely on confession. Confession, as far as I surmise J prosecutors' take on the vernacular constitution, is strictly limited to those evinced IN court. PRIOR TO the court, namely, they have no compunction about compelling ANYONE to testify against oneself, detaining ANYONE for a long time to extract confession as well as including it into evidence; and making 3 JUDGES convict anyone based on confession alone. That is the take I labored from Google's machine translation of Art. 37 Para 3, cited by CG's former council. Hence CG's recommendation: Get out of there. You are playing your life.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Playing with your life- I missed a preposition.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

If Japan does not fix and reform the Japanese criminal Justice system, Japan should know know of the consequences and the backlash they'll be getting from Youtubers since we all know that the Japanese criminal Justice system is so unfair and such an injustice since no one gets a fair trial period. Plus Japan is going to be criticized by loads of Youtubers if their Japanese criminal Justice system is not fixed and reformed and changed as well

3 ( +5 / -2 )

If there was proved of Carlos Ghosn misusing of the Company's money and his position and then Nissan-Mitsubishi has right to dismiss from the position. Lebanese businessmen are as bright as Jewish businessmen but they are not always honest. It does not matter whatever reason Ghosn was dismissed from Nissan-MItsubishi alliance if they have evidence of Ghosn misused of Company's fund for his own personal gain.

Carlos Ghosn was very sharp and very bright businessman, but he makesa mistake by trying to cover his lost in the stock market with Company money. His integrity has gone when he lost his investment in stock shares.

Carlos Ghosn has to explain not just about his using fund of Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, but also he has to explain about his misusing Renault Company's money. There's no excused for financial misconduct and using the Company's fund for personal gain. Now those allegations and evidence of financial misconducts committed by Ghosn were certain curtain call for him and no more Phoenix story of Carlos Ghosn. One mistake, okay, but too many mistakes and misusing tens of millions of dollars is not okay.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

The Dutch justice system is demanding documents from Nissan and Mitsubishi.

We are likely to discover more truthful things about Ghons, in a court in Amsterdam than in Tokyo.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

RE: Constitution Art. 37 Para 3 - A translation of Motoyuki SHIBATA goes like this according to his book, "Japan's Constitution in Contemporary English," published in 2015 by ALC Press, Tokyo. His legalese is reviewed by Sota KIMURA.

"At all times the accused shall have the assistance of competent counsel who shall, if the accused is unable to secure the same by his own efforts, be assigned to his use by the State."

Remember the original is made up of two sentences, whereas Shibata's and both Houses' employ one-sentence style (respect ? to the style in US 6th Amendment). Still perplexing is the first sentence verb, "(bengonin wo) irai suru koto ga dekiru," which has little trace in Sibata's and in Parliament's. This J verb is, furthermore, repeated in the second J sentence: (kore wo) irai suru kotoga dekinai. Anybody can dig this wordy constitution Art 37 Para 3?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Nissan has more money than him.

Maybe not for long.

So they'll drown him in legal expenses.

This is their usual way of conducting business with smaller competitors, which is why I never liked them as a company. To Nissan, win-win means they won twice and everybody else loses.

They have many wonderful employees, and I feel sorry for them. But their upper management have always been snakes.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Nissan and Mitsubishi are embarrassing themselves in a pathetic attempt to save face.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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