Carlos Ghosn re-arrested on suspicion of shifting personal losses to Nissan: report
FBN's Cheryl Casone on the latest allegations against former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
Carlos Ghosn remains behind bars as prosecutors cited new suspicions that the former Nissan CEO shifted personal losses to the automaker.
This keeps Ghosn behind bars for another two days with prosecutors having the ability to stretch the detention for as much as 20 days.
Prosecutors said they suspected that in October 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Ghosn temporarily forced Nissan to take over a personal derivative contract that was sitting on $16.6 million in losses at the time, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ghosn later reportedly took back the contract onto his personal books and received help from an unidentified person in submitting a statement backing up his credit to the bank on the other side of the contract, prosecutors said in a statement outlining their suspicions.
Then, between 2009 and 2012, Ghosn had a Nissan subsidiary transfer a total of $14.7 million into an account controlled by that person, the statement said.
Those suspicions, if proven, would constitute “special breach of trust,” a criminal violation under Japan’s company law that signifies an executive has abused his position for personal gain, prosecutors said.
Ghosn was indicted on Dec. 10 on charges of underreporting his compensation on Nissan’s financial statement over a five-year period ending in March 2015.
At the same time, prosecutors cited new suspicions that Ghosn underreported his compensation for the three years ending in March 2018, using that as a basis to extend his detention without bail.
On Thursday, prosecutors suffered a rare loss after a judge rejected their request to hold Ghosn for 10 more days without the possibility of bail on the basis of those additional suspicions.
It is rare for a court to reject a request to extend the detention period, said Tokyo deputy chief prosecutor Shin Kukimoto on Thursday.
The new suspicions came shortly before the scheduled bail hearing on Friday.
Ghosn’s lawyers said his client maintains his innocence and hopes to restore his honor at trial.