The Wall Street Journal: The arrest without charge of Carlos Ghosn still raises questions about the Nissan-Renault merger plan

WSJ: The arrest of Carlos Ghosn raises questions about the Nissan-Renault merger plan

"A director who, at one point, was considered the savior of a company is arrested at the airport, is kept in custody for several days without charge, prosecutors are questioned in the meantime. absence of a lawyer and is referred to the news release. Communist China? No, it is capitalist Japan, where Carlos Ghosn, the former managing director of Nissan Motors, undergoes a strange insight, but this episode should be of concern to anyone facing legal action and corporate governance in Japan, "reports the Wall Street Journal.

"It's not long ago, Mr. Ghosn was commended in Tokyo for rescuing Nissan from potential bankruptcy.He is now at the police for an indefinite period, unable to contact his family and unable to to defend his reputation.) Japanese law allows the detention of a suspect for 48 hours, then ten days and ten days later, without charge.The police can order a new arrest if another crime is suspected, but this treatment Yakuza is a world-class leader who does not have a criminal record for fraud or abuse of power. "This is certainly not the way Japanese prosecutors have acted with Toshiba suspects or Olympus, two companies affected by financial scandals, highlights editorialists of the WSJ.

The allegations in the press are also strange, because Nissan should have known about these facts. According to the press, Carlos Ghosn has not claimed compensation of $ 44 million over the past five years. But Nissan should have declared the offsets in the public financial records. Nissan says another governor, American Greg Kelly, has coordinated the compensation plan. And Greg Kelly is stopped preventively, without being able to communicate publicly. But if he and Carlos Ghosn could do these things without Nissan noticing it, the company would probably have much bigger internal control problems than undisclosed compensation agreements, the WSJ notes. .

Another accusation is that Ghosn used the company's funds to buy homes in Rio de Janeiro and Beirut. Nissan should know if it is corporate or personal housing. A source close to the Ghosn family says the manager is not the owner of the houses.

"There may be some evidence to support these suspicions, but the details of the arrest and the context of the allegations are skeptical." Last week, Nissan quickly sacked Carlos Ghosn as president, and Mitsubishi Motors handed Carlos to Carlos in the absence of Carlos Ghosn's current director, Hiroto Saikawa, was an ally of Carlos Ghosn , but he now describes Ghosn as being too powerful, saying he was given too much credit for Nissan's revival in the 2000s. When Saikawa was arrested, he publicly criticized Ghosn harshly. If anyone wants to discredit the president of a company admired by most Japanese viewers in order to save Nissan, there is no better way than to make accusations silence, and the Japanese press had been warned in advance of the arrest because it was journalists You Haneda Airport, "says the WSJ.

"You do not need to be the author of conspiracy theories to watch these events and ask yourself if they are part of a larger effort to stop the project." Nissan's merger of Carlos Ghosn with Renault, the French carmaker he is the director Renault has stepped in to save Nissan, and the two companies are still subject to a partnership formula, but Nissan has become more profitable than Renault, a company in which the French government holds 15% stake, disrupted Hiroto Saikawa. "The involvement of the French company and the arrest of Carlos Ghosn can permanently affect the partnership," say the editors of the daily Wall Street Journal, while noting that Japan had an island business culture, but Carlos Ghosn was an outstanding foreign leader who managed to state.

"In the context of financial scandals, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has adopted reforms in corporate governance, but he has also promoted Japanese nationalism without further transparency, without public disclosure of the evidence underlying the allegations. Carlos Ghosn and Greg Kelly, the ambush Nissan will be a black spot in the Japanese business environment, "concludes the WSJ.

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