Ghosn's career has spanned decades, and through all those years, his swaggering and at-times entitled corporate behavior has been observed. Prior to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's arrival on the scene, Ghosn was the undisputed top-dog, rockstar automotive leader. And he acted like he knew it.
Anybody who has seen the 1970 Oscar-winning film "Patton" knows the famous speech that George C. Scott, portraying the American World War II general, delivers toward the conclusion:
For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.
Ghosn, as Nissan's CEO and later as its chairman, might have had some lieutenants whispering in his ear, but more like he had yes-men signing off on his pronouncements.
Ten years ago, the arrangement made sense. Ghosn had yoked together Renault and Nissan in an alliance that against the odds benefitted both automakers. Japan and France were pleased. But more recently, as Ghosn stepped down as Nissan's CEO, cracks were showing. He had gotten into fights with the French government, which controls 15% of Renault, over his compensation. His pay was also controversial in Japan, where he was an outsider who made far more than his Japanese counterparts at other major car companies.
Ghosn perhaps didn't care, because he was still paid less than other CEOs. But was he still worth it? Adding Mitsubishi to the alliance gave the triumvirate additional scale, but the troubled automaker wasn't likely to add much to the alliance's North American business, where Nissan had been clinging to market share by burning profits through discounts of slow-selling models.
Ghosn's magic touch seemed to be fading. The spell he had long cast was breaking. And perhaps that meant closer scrutiny of how he was running a far-flung global business.
An "investigation" by Japanese authorities "showed that over many years both Ghosn and [board member Greg] Kelly have been reporting compensation amounts in the Tokyo Stock Exchange securities report that were less than the actual amount, in order to reduce the disclosed amount of Carlos Ghosn's compensation," Nissan said in a statement last week, after Ghosn was detained in Japan.
"Also, in regards to Ghosn, numerous other significant acts of misconduct have been uncovered, such as personal use of company assets, and Kelly's deep involvement has also been confirmed."
Obviously, these are still allegations, and because of Japanese law, Ghosn can be detained for weeks without being charged. The worst-case scenario, of course, is that he's completely guilty, in which case his fall would be unprecedented in the history of the industry.