Carlos Ghosn hits out at accusers and may even hope for a comeback
Speaking for the first time in public since he dramatically fled Japan for Lebanon, smuggled out in a flight case, Carlos Ghosn gave a fiery press conference today in which he once again denied the charges of under-declaring his income and breach of trust laid against him.
The auto industry titan who had overseen Nissan’s recovery from near bankruptcy after it partnered with Renault- and went on to mastermind the rise of this partnership culminating in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance – fell suddenly from grace when he was arrested 19 November 2018 at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. After a long detention and harsh pre-trial house arrest another surprise was sprung when Ghosn fled Japan to Lebanon.
Today Ghosn not only once again denied the charges against him but described why he had decided to flee Japan instead of staying and to face trial.
Opening the press conference, Ghosn emphasised the harshness of his treatment following his arrest and said he did not believe he would have faced a fair trial in Japan. Using the term “hostage justice” Ghosn described how the Japanese system allowed him to be detained in solitary confinement for over 120 days with no way to communicate with his family beyond letters his lawyers held against the glass partition. Passionately protesting this treatment Ghosn said “I felt like I was not human any more”.
Ghosn described how he was interrogated for hours at a time without the presence of a lawyer. He argued that these tactics came from a drive not to seek the truth but to assure the victory of the prosecutors in a system where the criminal conviction rate is 99.4%.
Faced with this Ghosn said he felt “like I was dead […] anaesthetised”. The repeatedly upheld ban on him seeing, or even speaking to, his wife while under house arrest on the grounds he might ask to her tamper with evidence seems to have particularly infuriated Ghosn. He repeatedly railed against it during the press conference.
However, the final straw was the indication that his trial scheduled for September 2020 was to be pushed back to 2021 – and Ghosn’s lawyers informed he could spend up to 5 years under house arrest in Japan, without seeing his wife.
Regarding the escape itself people hoping for more details will be disappointed. Ghosn refused to discuss it on the grounds he did not wish to cause trouble for those who helped him – and resisted all attempts to cajole further details.
Discussing the case against him Ghosn also disappointed those hoping for bombshells here. His claims that the case against him was the result of a conspiracy between Nissan executives, the law firm Latham & Watkins, and certain officials in the Japanese government are nothing new. Furthermore, while he named some senior Nissan executives he believed involved in the conspiracy he refused to name figures in the Japanese government on the grounds he did not wish to cause further difficulties for the Lebanese government and people. When pressed Ghosn did say he did not believe that the plot went to the top of the government i.e. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Regarding the specific charges against him Ghosn did display some documents which he claimed exonerated him – and said he would share copies with journalists and with mote to come. Ghosn also claimed many figures in Nissan were aware of, and even signed off on, the things he now finds himself facing charges over.
Perhaps the real surprise was how determined Ghosn seemed to be to not just try and clear his name but make a comeback. During the conference he expounded at length on how the losses caused by Nissan and Renault’s stock values plummeting after his arrest eclipsed the amounts of money he was accused of misusing. Indeed, alongside the ban on seeing his wife the losses incurred by these companies seemed to arouse the most anger in Ghosn. He seemed to feel not just that he had been betrayed but that his greatest achievements were being destroyed.
In pursuit of this unlikely comeback Ghosn stated he was willing to stand trial in a country which, unlike Japan, could guarantee its fairness – though he indicated it would not be Lebanon.
Despite this Ghosn even seemed keen to try to win back his good reputation in Japan, hitting back at how he felt he had been characterised as a “cold greedy dictator” in the Japanese press. However, even as he asked why Japan was “paying me with evil for the good I have done” he insisted he loved Japan and believed most ordinary Japanese still supported him. If this is the case an earlier comparison of his arrest to Pearl Harbour may have been unwise.
Even Ghosn had to admit that after fleeing many would never believe he was innocent and all he could do was try convince those willing to listen. Furthermore, even as he denied the Japanese charges against him and argued that its courts system was unable to deliver justice Ghosn did not address why the USA’s Securities and Exchange Commission had also investigated him for under-declaring his income before agreeing to a settlement. Responding to claims he had misused Renault funds for personal gain – in particular for a lavish party at Versailles – Ghosn offered a somewhat convoluted explanation and argued the audit by Renault had not been properly conducted. A comeback seems out of reach even for the man who made his name turning around apparently hopeless situations.