“Nissan caused me a lot of irreparable damage,” Carlos Ghosn said remotely at a Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. The former CEO of Renault-Nissan considers himself the victim of false accusations by the Japanese automaker and is demanding a “small compensation” of one billion dollars.
Still on the run in Lebanon after his arrest in 2018, the downed car magnate has been the subject of three international arrest warrants, two in France and one in Japan, as part of investigations, notably for misuse of corporate assets and money laundering. in a gang organized in conjunction with Omani dealer Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
“I’m not looking for revenge”
For this reason, Carlos Ghosn took the opportunity to deliver his version of the events, detailing the reasons for his arrest. “I was detained for the sole fact of not having declared compensation that was not paid or decided,” he justifies. According to him, the Japanese prosecutor in charge of the case told him: “it is better to confess now to limit the damage or else we will look everywhere and attack your family, your wife, your children…”.
To date, the traces of this exchange have not been confirmed, but Carlos Ghosn assures that everything is recorded and only the prosecutor in question would have possession of it. The latter would have knowingly decided not to reveal them publicly.
Carlos Ghosn once again denounces the collusion between Nissan and the Japanese justice, qualifying that “the best way found was to get rid of the head of the group” so that Renault-Nissan could “regain its freedom”.
Believing himself wronged, he filed a lawsuit in Lebanon last June to claim $588 million in lost compensation and an additional $500 million in moral damages.
During the same exchange, Nobuo Gohara, a former prosecutor and lawyer who represented Carlos Ghosn, clarified that his client’s decision to flee Japan was inevitable, calling the way the special prosecutor’s office handled the case “unfair.” “Since my arrest, I was already in the escape state of mind,” added Carlos Ghosn. The Japanese system of “hostage justice” that he describes today would confirm his desire not to return to the country.
Source: BFM TV
