French justice has issued an international arrest warrant against Carlos Ghosn, former chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance (RNBV), as part of an investigation in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), in particular for misuse of company assets and money laundering of money, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said on Friday, April 22, confirming information from Wall Street Journal†
The Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman, who was to be tried in Tokyo for financial embezzlement, has lived in Beirut since his incredible flight from Japan in late 2019. In Nanterre, investigators are interested in nearly 15 million euros in suspicious payments between RNBV and the distributor of the French automaker in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
When the arrest warrant is executed, Carlos Ghosn is brought before an examining magistrate from Nanterre, who informs him of his charges. The former boss of Nissan and Renault is beyond the reach of Japanese justice because Lebanon does not extradite its nationals.
“This mandate is very surprising”
The Nanterre investigating judge in charge of the investigation has issued a total of five international arrest warrants: in addition to Carlos Ghosn, they target “the current owners or ex-managers of the Omani company SBA”said the prosecutor.
“This is not an arrest warrant issued by France, but by the Nanterre Court during an ongoing investigation, specifically by the parquet floor of Nanterre”One of Mr Ghosn’s lawyers, Jean Tamalet, of King and Spalding responded:
“This mandate is very surprising, because the investigating judge and the Nanterre prosecutor are well aware that Carlos Ghosn, who has always worked with the judiciary, is subject to a judicial prohibition to leave Lebanese territory. †
During their investigation, the magistrates of Nanterre had already traveled to Beirut twice. In February they heard two witnesses there. In June, with magistrates from Paris, they had proceeded to Mr Ghosn’s free five-day hearing for the investigations targeting Nanterre and Paris.
Contacted, Renault’s lawyer, a civil party to the proceedings, could not be reached on Friday morning.
unbelievable leak
At the end of 2019, Mr Ghosn was out on bail in Tokyo. He was barred from leaving Japan pending trial for alleged financial misconduct while at the helm of Nissan. mr. Ghosn has always maintained his innocence in this case.
On December 29, 2019, after traveling incognito from Tokyo to Osaka on Shinkansen, the Japanese high-speed train, he hid in a large box with small discrete holes to allow him to breathe. For example, Mr Ghosn had escaped the controls at Kansai International Airport. Baggage checks were not mandatory for passengers on board a private jet at the time.
He had gone via Istanbul to Beirut on board private jets rented for the occasion. In February 2020, three people were sentenced to more than four years in prison each by a court in Istanbul, Turkey, in this case: an official from a Turkish jet rental company, as well as two pilots.
Mr Ghosn’s flight did not prevent the opening, in September 2020, of a criminal trial in Tokyo over deferred damages totaling tens of millions of dollars. He would touch them later, but that was not mentioned in the group’s stock reports.
