Nissan’s Ghosn denies alleged financial misconduct in Tokyo court

Nobutoshi Katsuyama

TOKYO, Jan 8, 2019, Kyodo. Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn on Tuesday declared his innocence and protested his prolonged detention as he made his first public appearance at a Tokyo court since being arrested around 50 days ago, reported the Kyodo News.

“I am innocent of the accusations made against me. I have always acted with integrity and have never been accused of any wrongdoing in my several-decade professional career,” Ghosn, once among the most celebrated executives in Japan, said during the open hearing that was held at his request to seek an explanation for his prolonged detention.

“I have been wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations,” said the 64-year-old, who walked into the courtroom wearing slippers and a suit without a tie, and seemed thinner than prior to his detention, with his hair graying.

Ghosn has remained in custody at the Tokyo Detention House since prosecutors arrested him in mid-November for allegedly understating his remuneration in Nissan’s securities reports submitted to Japanese regulators.

His detention has been extended due to a fresh allegation that he transferred personal investment losses to Nissan during the 2008 global financial crisis.

At the Tokyo District Court, Ghosn, who was sent to Nissan from Renault SA in 1999, stressed he had dedicated two decades of his life to reviving the Japanese automaker from the brink of bankruptcy.

“I worked toward these goals day and night, on the earth and in the air, standing shoulder to shoulder with hardworking Nissan employees around the globe, to create value,” Ghosn said in his statement in English that lasted about 10 minutes.

Denying that the temporary transfer of his private investment contract to Nissan caused damage to the Japanese company and all other allegations against him, Ghosn said, “I have acted honorably, legally, and with the knowledge and approval of the appropriate executives inside the company.”

Ghosn has remained in custody at the Tokyo Detention House since prosecutors arrested him in mid-November for allegedly understating his remuneration in Nissan’s securities reports submitted to Japanese regulators.

His detention has been extended due to a fresh allegation that he transferred personal investment losses to Nissan during the 2008 global financial crisis.

At the Tokyo District Court, Ghosn, who was sent to Nissan from Renault SA in 1999, stressed he had dedicated two decades of his life to reviving the Japanese automaker from the brink of bankruptcy.

“I worked toward these goals day and night, on the earth and in the air, standing shoulder to shoulder with hardworking Nissan employees around the globe, to create value,” Ghosn said in his statement in English that lasted about 10 minutes.

Denying that the temporary transfer of his private investment contract to Nissan caused damage to the Japanese company and all other allegations against him, Ghosn said, “I have acted honorably, legally, and with the knowledge and approval of the appropriate executives inside the company.”

Nissan, which said it was cooperating with the prosecutors after conducting its own months-long investigation, promptly removed Ghosn as chairman and Kelly as a representative director. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also dismissed Ghosn from the post of chairman.

The two were charged on Dec. 10 and served with fresh arrest warrants for similar misconduct during the three years through March 2018. Kelly, who suffers from spinal stenosis, was later released on bail and is being treated at a hospital in Ibaraki Prefecture.

Ghosn’s detention, meanwhile, was further extended after he was served with a third arrest warrant on Dec. 21 for allegedly transferring personal investment losses worth 1.85 billion yen to Nissan in 2008.

The investment contract Ghosn’s personal asset management firm had with a Tokyo bank incurred an appraisal loss of 1.85 billion yen due to the financial crisis and the contract was transferred to Nissan after the bank sought additional collateral due to the swelling loss, according to the prosecutors.

The contract was transferred back to the management firm with a Saudi acquaintance of Ghosn guaranteeing credit. Ghosn is also suspected of using a Nissan subsidiary to pay the Saudi businessman a total of $14.7 million from 2009 to 2012.

Ghosn said in the hearing that the payment to his acquaintance, Khaled Al-Juffali, vice chairman of one of Saudi Arabia’s largest conglomerates, was a proper compensation in exchange for taking care of “complicated” business problems in the Middle East.

On the reasons for transferring his investment contract, Ghosn said the financial crisis was an event that no one could have predicted.

Ghosn’s defense counsel plans to file a request to the court to end his detention following the hearing on Tuesday.

The development came ahead of the end of Ghosn’s current detention period on Jan. 11, by when prosecutors must decide whether to indict him for alleged breach of trust.

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