On April 22, France issued an arrest for Carlos Ghosn, the fugitive and former top-dog at Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi. Ghosn’s first major run-in with the law happened in 2018, when Japanese authorities accused him of financial misconduct and detained him for nearly five months. A daring escape from the country left him in his homeland of Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan. Could these new charges from France be the means to putting Ghosn away? Jerry the car ownership super app looked into the details to find out. For a good two decades, Carlos Ghosn’s could be tracked on an upwards slant. The success of the alliance he orchestrated between Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi in 1999 earned the job of manning Nissan’s wheel in 2001. In about a year, he turned the Japanese automaker around, and under his leadership, Nissan became one of the most profitable car companies in the world. But his boldness proved to be both a strength and a weakness. Bloomberg says that In November 2018, Japanese police arrested Ghosn on suspicion of defrauding Nissan of $140 million. He was kept in prison for five months. When he finally made bail, the conditions of his release included a travel ban that forced him to stay in Japan. Instead of following those terms, Ghosn had two Americans smuggle him out of the country in a box. He reached Lebanon, where he’s lived in hiding ever since. French authorities started looking into Ghosn’s dealings in 2020, after he escaped from Japan. They issued the international arrest warrant for Ghosn after suspect payments were discovered to be flowing from Renault to a dealership in Oman. According to Reuters, prosecutors allege that Ghosn worked with the dealership to funnel millions of dollars from Renault for his own personal use. Ghosn maintains his innocence and says he will cooperate with French authorities, but he remains in Lebanon, a country with a policy of not extraditing its citizens. Ghosn also holds a French passport, which might make matters more complicated than it was with the Japanese government. But so far, no effort has been made by Lebanon to hand Ghosn over. The scandal surrounding Ghosn did a number on Nissan’s name, but it apparently wasn’t the only problem the company faced. Ravinder Passi, a former top lawyer for the automaker, blew the whistle to Bloomberg, saying that the company has a reputation for surveilling and intimidating their staff. And while the alliance Ghosn built between Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi remains intact, Nissan’s profitability once again hangs in the balance. As for Nissan’s cars, reviews are underwhelming, with Car and Driver ratings for 2022 models fluctuating between 8 and 4.5 out of 10. Car insurance prices for Nissans don’t impress either. At nearly $1,900 a year, average coverage for Nissans is about $250 more than the national average. If you want to save on coverage, go to Jerry. A licensed broker that offers end-to-end support, the Jerry app gathers affordable quotes, helps you switch plans, and can even help you cancel your old policy. The average Jerry user saves over $800 a year on car insurance. New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Two American men were handed prison sentences by a Japanese court on Monday for helping former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn flee the country in 2019, weeks after the father-son duo pleaded guilty and apologized for aiding the fugitive auto executive who faces charges of financial wrongdoing in Japan. AFP via Getty Images
The Tokyo District Court sentenced 60-year-old U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor to two years in prison and his 28-year-old son Peter to one year and eight months in prison.
While issuing the sentences, the judge said that the duo enabled Ghosn, “a defendant of serious crime,” to escape overseas and noted that the prospects of former Nissan CEO facing a trial remains bleak.
The two men faced up to three years in prison under Japanese law but their defense team has called for suspended sentences after the duo pleaded guilty and issued a tearful apology. In 2019, Michael and Peter Taylor helped Ghosn escape from Japan by hiding him in a piece of carry-on luggage aboard a private jet that departed from Kansai airport. After escaping, Ghosn fled to his childhood home in Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. Ghosn, who was also the chairman and CEO of French automaker Renault, is accused of financial wrongdoing, including underreporting his compensation in Nissan’s financial statements and misusing Nissan’s funds. The former auto executive has denied all charges. Another former Nissan executive, Greg Kelly, has been charged with helping Ghosn hide his compensation and is currently on trial in Tokyo. The Taylors were arrested in Japan in March after being extradited by U.S. authorities. American duo sentenced to prison by Tokyo court for helping Ghosn flee Japan (Reuters) 2 Americans convicted of helping Ghosn flee Japan, get jail terms (Kyodo News) Americans apologize to Tokyo court for role in Ghosn escape (Associated Press) Defiant Ghosn pins hopes on French probes to clear his name (Associated Press) Follow me on Twitter. Send me a secure tip.
The former Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance chairman Carlos Ghosn moved from Japan to Lebanon in December 2019 after being under house arrest in Japan pending trial for financial misconduct in the country. A few months later, there were reports about a potential split between the companies from the alliance, though, obviously, this hasn’t happened so far. In a recent interview, however, Ghosn slammed Nissan for the way it has developed since his departure from the automaker. "Nissan came back to what it was in 1999, unfortunately, after 19 years of work, as a boring and mediocre car company, which is going to be struggling to try to find its place in the car industry," the 67-year-old Brazilian said in an exclusive FOX Business interview. "We were building a system where this company would be a part of something completely new with a lot of technical innovation." To express his point of view in the 2019-2020 drama, Ghosn has a new book entitled "Broken Alliances," in which he explains what exactly happened in the court, of course, from his own perspective. He also has a theory why all of this happened and it’s related to the allegation the Japanese government was not especially happy with the global automotive alliance he built. "The Japanese government and some Japanese executives thought that this balance existing between the French and the Japanese in this alliance would not be respected," the former CEO told Maria Bartiromo during Wednesday’s Mornings with Maria. “The French government was acting in a way to have a much bigger share in their say of this alliance." Is everything going to settle down once the trial ends? Most likely, no, and Ghosn believes there are no winners in this case. "Japan lost its reputation. The French lost. Nissan lost, Renault lost, Mitsubishi lost, the shareholders lost."
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