Nissan employees reportedly burst into applause when they learned Carlos Ghosn had been arrested

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Ghosn was the CEO of Nissan from 2001 until 2017 and served as the CEO of Renault from 2005 until his arrest.

• Nissan employees burst into applause after learning that chairman and former CEO Carlos Ghosn had been arrested, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• A person familiar with Nissan's investigation into Ghosn told The Journal that "the sentiment against Mr. Ghosn in Nissan had been building 'like a volcano,'" before his arrest.
• Nissan did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Nissan employees at a town hall at company headquarters burst into applause after learning that chairman and former CEO Carlos Ghosn had been arrested, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A person familiar with Nissan's investigation into Ghosn told The Journal that "the sentiment against Mr. Ghosn in Nissan had been building 'like a volcano,'" before his arrest.

Read more: Nissan is investigating a 'CEO reserve' fund used by its former chairman Carlos Ghosn

According to The Journal, some long-tenured Nissan employees based in Japan thought non-Japanese Nissan executives received promotions from Ghosn faster than those based in Japan. And Nissan employees reportedly felt that the automaker's revenues were boosting Renault, the French automaker that had bought a controlling stake in Nissan in the late 1990s, a move Ghosn had encouraged as a Renault executive.

Ghosn was the CEO of Nissan from 2001 until 2017 and served as the CEO of Renault from 2005 until his arrest.

Nissan did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Japanese prosecutors arrested Ghosn in November and charged him with conspiring to understate his compensation by around $88 million. Ghosn remains in detention in Japan as he awaits trial.

Read The Wall Street Journal's full report here.