Lawyers say Ghosn used Nissan-Mitsubishi venture to inflate pay

EPA-EFE/ETIENNE LAURENT
Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn waits for French President Emmanuel Macron (not pictured) for a visit of the Renault factory in Maubeuge, northeastern France, 08 November 2018 (reissued 26 November 2018). Media reports on 26 November 2018 state the board of Mitsubishi Motors has sacked Ghosn from his position as chairman over his alleged financial misconduct. Ghosn, CEO of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, was earlier sacked from his position as Nissan chairman 22 November 2018.

- Advertisement -

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn used a joint venture between Nissan and Mitsubishi to inflate his pay and to cover a personal tax debt, lawyers for the automakers said.
Ghosn was arrested in Japan in 2018 on financial misconduct charges but fled to Lebanon amid a trial for alleged financial misconduct. He is accused for underreporting his income for years. He has denied the charges, and has since launched court cases against the companies, arguing he was fired unlawfully.
One of the cases is in the Netherlands. The lawyers said Monday that Ghosn granted himself a salary and bonus worth €7.3 million in total without the knowledge of the boards of Nissan and Mitsubishi.
Nissan suffered a lot since the scandal, as it has been accused of falsifying Ghosn’s pay in financial statements. The company fired him as chairman, and has since had difficulties getting back on track.
Lawyers said there was also evidence that Ghosn made the Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance pay a personal French tax debt of €498,000 in 2018, and that he had arranged a “pre-payment” of his 2019 salary in 2018 to avoid a scheduled increase in Dutch income tax rates.
“Nissan and Mitsubishi publicly shamed Ghosn. Their reports and accusations were never put to Ghosn. There was no due process”, Ghosn’s lawyer told the court.
The court said it would postpone any decision on documents until 26 March, when Nissan and Mitsubishi file their case on the reasons for Ghosn’s dismissal.

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

Latest

Zeno’s Arrow and Albania’s membership in the EU

Recently, the position of the incoming German government coalition...

On the two-year anniversary, G7 Foreign Ministers address the devastating war in Sudan

After nearly 23 months of war, on March 21,...

Doom, gloom or boom?

While it is an almost painful daily task to...

Don't miss

Zeno’s Arrow and Albania’s membership in the EU

Recently, the position of the incoming German government coalition...

On the two-year anniversary, G7 Foreign Ministers address the devastating war in Sudan

After nearly 23 months of war, on March 21,...

Doom, gloom or boom?

While it is an almost painful daily task to...

Back to the 1970s: Flared trousers and tank tops. Is this the result of Trump’s tariff tantrums?

There are somewhere some dreadful photographs of this author wearing what we all once thought were the height of fashion and style. Generally, that...

Doom, gloom or boom?

While it is an almost painful daily task to ascertain where the Trump administration is positioned on the question of tariff policy, and traders...

G7 condemns China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan

In a statement issued on April 6, 2025, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States...

Germany removes key debt brake budget limits in historic move

Rushing to arrive at a workable arrangement before the new post-election German parliament convened on March 25, Friedrich Merz’s victorious CDU/CSU bloc and the...

EU signs critical raw materials, energy and infrastructure deals with Kazakhstan

As part of the visit of EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela to Astana, the European Union and Kazakhstan signed on March 13...

EU leaders in Kyiv back Ukraine, but Trump won’t blame Russia

On the three-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European leaders travelled to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and to declare their...

Kazakhstan accelerates digital transformation with new visa options

Upgrading its visa regime for skilled foreign workers and potential investors to world-class standards to support the Central Asia country’s economic development and digital...

EU officially implements landmark AI law

The EU officially implemented its new landmark AI law on February 2, aiming to ensure safety and ethical use of Artificial Intelligence. The European...