• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • The Rearview Mirror: "A Path Filled With Hardships"
  • Q&A: Volvo CEO Jim Rowan Talks Hitting Targets, Future Vehicles
  • FIA’s Formula E is Changing the Way We Look at Racing
  • Lexus Lifts the Covers Off New, Three-Row TX SUV
  • First Look: 2024 Lexus GX
  • GM Investing $500M in Texas Plant for Gas-Powered SUVs
  • New Battery Chemistry Promises Increased Range, Cell Life
  • Labor Unrest at West Coast Ports Threatens U.S. Automakers
  • Used Car Wholesale Prices Decline; Retail Prices Don't
  • Pandemic Accelerated Auto Dealers’ Shift to Digital-Oriented Sales Process
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
      • Feeder
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2024 Chevrolet Trax Activ
    • A Week With: 2024 GMC Sierra 2500 Denali Ultimate
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 SE
    • A Week With: 2023 Kia Niro SX Touring
    • A Week With: 2023 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Estrema Q4
    • A Week With: 2023 Lexus NX 350h Luxury
    • A Week With: 2023 Volkswagen Tiguan SEL R-Line
    • First Drive: 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander
    • A Week With: 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E Premium RWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Electrified GV70 AWD Prestige
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Automakers > One Year After Arrest, Carlos Ghosn Fires Back

        One Year After Arrest, Carlos Ghosn Fires Back

        Former Nissan boss accuses automaker, Japanese prosecutors of conspiracy.

        Paul A. Eisenstein
        Paul A. Eisenstein , Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
        Nov. 25, 2019
        Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn clearly showed the impact of his detention when he issued a video statement last April proclaiming his innocence.

        Carlos Ghosn has never been one to relax. As the long-time head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, he spent much of his time winging around the world overseeing one of the auto industry’s largest empires. Today, despite being limited in his movements, he remains busy, spending much of his time at the office of his lead attorney in Tokyo.

        That’s where the 66-year-old executive is preparing for trial sometime next year on a variety of counts alleging corporate corruption, charges that could see Ghosn locked up for years in a Japanese prison. But the Brazilian-born executive hopes to beat the odds in a country where authorities almost always win at trial. Ghosn’s legal strategy is to turn things upside-down, laying out claims of a conspiracy between Nissan, the Japanese ministry of trade and prosecutors.

        “Prosecutors have repeatedly and systematically denied Mr. Ghosn fundamental rights of due process and turned the presumption of innocence on its head,” Junichiro Hironaka, Ghosn’s lead attorney said in a statement issued last week, a year after the executive was unexpectedly arrested soon after his corporate jet arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

        Shortly after the handcuffed Ghosn was yanked off the plane and taken to the Tokyo Detention Center, authorities accused him of failing to report millions of dollars in income. In the months that followed, they laid out an array of additional charges, routinely waiting until Ghosn was set to be released from detention to describe each of the new allegations. That strategy ultimately resulted in the one-time corporate superstar being kept in a tiny cell, with a mat on the floor serving as his bed, for 130 days.

        (SEC fines Ghosn and Nissan for false reporting of compensation.)

        Known as “the Razor,” Ghosn’s lead attorney, Junichiro Hironaka, has been pushing to turn the case upside-down, focusing on an alleged conspiracy by government officials and Nissan.

        Almost as soon as Ghosn was locked up, Nissan moved to remove him from his corporate post — a step followed soon afterwards by Mitsubishi and, eventually, Renault. Hirota Saikawa, the CEO of Japan’s second-largest automaker, quickly spoke out about his one-time mentor, harshly criticizing Ghosn and revealing that the case was triggered by an internal corporate probe.

        Ironically, Saikawa himself would be caught up in that net himself, in an embarrassing twist acknowledging in September that he also was overpaid to the tune of tens of millions of yen. Saikawa subsequently announced plans to retire, Nissan set to formally install a new CEO at the beginning of the year.

        If anything, the revelation about Saikawa has only encouraged Ghosn to escalate his fight against his own corruption charges.

        (Nissan CEO admits to getting overpaid, benefitted from program that Led to Ghosn’s ouster)

        One of the key questions centers around how much evidence prosecutors actually have – and where it comes from. The legal team led by Hironaka – one of Japan’s most famous and successful defense attorneys – has argued that the case is really based on a conspiracy to push Ghosn out of his management role.

        They aren’t alone, as TheDetroitBureau.com has reported over the past year. There have been numerous questions raised about Japan’s acceptance of foreigners in high-level positions. As Nissan expanded its probe following Ghosn’s arrest, many sources raised concerns about what one described as a “blood-letting,” one largely aimed at non-Japanese employees. Among those forced out was Nissan Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz.

        Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa was harshly critical of Ghosn, following the exec’s arrest. But Saikawa was later found to have received excess pay himself.

        Hironaka has contended that, to make their case, prosecutors worked with Nissan “to drum up allegations of wrongdoing” against Ghosn, noted a report by Bloomberg.

        A recent report by the news service quoted Nobuo Gohara, a former Japanese prosecutor, who has become critical of the case against Ghosn. “It’s abnormal, this whole process,” said Gohara, who is not involved in the defense process. “They probably arrested Ghosn for the sake of arresting him. There’s no way they can build a case with just Nissan’s support.”

        The case has generated plenty of scrutiny and a fair share of criticism. French authorities initially raised concerns about the legal process, especially the extended detention of Ghosn – though they eventually pressured Renault to terminate the executive’s employment.

        Ghosn’s wife, who has largely been barred from meeting with him, urged global human rights organizations to weigh in on the case.

        But the executive has taken plenty of hits of his own. It didn’t help that a number of questions were raised about Ghosn’s use of corporate funds to help pay for his wedding at Versailles. And, over the months, new allegations have surfaced, including claims that Nissan money was diverted to a Middle East ally of the former executive who, in turn, used that to back an investment fund operated by Ghosn and his son in Silicon Valley.

        For their part, Ghosn and his attorneys insist the drip-drip-drip of new allegations has been carefully choreographed by his Nissan and government foes in a bid to make it harder for him to get a fair trial.

        When he will face charges in court is uncertain, the case now expected to push sometime into the first half of 2020.

        For now, Hironaka and his client deal with pre-trial hearings roughly once a month in the 17th Criminal Court Division of the Tokyo District Court. They have been pushing to get some of the charges dropped and limit the evidence that can be presented on other allegations. In the meantime, they also have been trying to keep the case in the public eye – but on their own terms, escalating efforts to position it as a conspiracy to frame an innocent man, rather than one of greed and corporate corruption.

        (Nissan brings all-new Sentra to LA Auto Show. Click Here for a closer look.)

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published

        The Rearview Mirror: “A Path Filled With Hardships”

        Today
        FIA Formula E 2023 Jakarta teams on track REL

        FIA’s Formula E is Changing the Way We Look at Racing

        Yesterday
        2024 Lexus TX - debut front 3-4

        Lexus Lifts the Covers Off New, Three-Row TX SUV

        Yesterday

        One response to “One Year After Arrest, Carlos Ghosn Fires Back”

        1. Gwen says:
          November 27, 2019 at 5:32 pm

          Ghosn is a crook. He swindled many Nissan owners by selling them problem prone junk hidden behind nissans past reputation of reliability. He single handedly ruined Nissan since day one. It just took several years for the public to realize just how shoddy Nissan products became since him and Renault. He is the reason many will never buy another Nissan again.

          Reply

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2023
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: