Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn slams executives for 'playing a dirty game'
- Embattled former Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi executive Carlos Ghosn has released a video Tuesday citing "dirty games" played by Nissan executives after he was recently re-arrested.
- The former CEO was expected to give a press conference on April 11 but the automotive executive was arrested for the fourth time since November last week instead.
- Ghosn posted one of the largest bail figures ever in Japan last month as his ordeal against the country's authorities continues.
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Former auto CEO Carlos Ghosn has come out fighting in his months-long battle against legal charges in Japan.
The Brazil-born executive was due to give a press conference on April 11 but was instead arrested by Japanese authorities for the fourth time since November. In response, the former executive at Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi released a video slamming Nissan executives for "playing a dirty game."
The seven-minute clip was recorded last Wednesday in the belief that a fresh arrest was possible. Ghosn was subsequently arrested in a dawn raid at his Tokyo apartment on allegations that he wrongly received portions of money sent by Nissan to an overseas distributor, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The former Nissan chairman and Renault CEO repeated his claims of innocence in the video. The notably thinner executive said, "I'm innocent of all the charges" and added "but hopefully the truth will happen, and the facts will happen." He also suggested that the allegations were twisted in a way to make him appear greedy.
Ghosn paid one of the largest bail fees in the history of Japan - 1 billion yen, or $8.9 million - to leave jail last month after 108 days.
He was kept in solitary confinement for much of his three-and-a-half month stay in the Japanese jail, with limited access to the outside world. The French-Lebanese former executive was able to bathe twice a week, with 30 minutes a day of exercise, according to Bloomberg.
Prosecutors in Japan have alleged that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance chairman and CEO earned a salary of about 10 billion yen, or $88.7 million, from 2011 to 2015, but reported only half of that. Ghosn could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 10 million yen if found to have committed any wrongdoing.
The executive was also accused of failing to report cash bonuses totalling about 4 billion yen ($35.6 million), according to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.