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On November 19, 2018, it was the fall for Carlos Ghosn. The all-powerful boss of the Renault-Nissan alliance was arrested when he was dropped off by the Japanese police. Accused of financial malpractice, the one who was at the head of an automobile empire is still under house arrest.
This arrest, by its brutality, had major consequences first of all for the image of the boss. Who, at the time, could imagine his fall? Carlos Ghosn was then the highest paid entrepreneur in Japan: boss of Nissan, but also of the alliance and Renault. He had an incredible aura. A comic even recounted his saga of savior Nissan.
Bowl of rice and hot water
The fall was all the greater . Carlos Ghosn loses all his functions and finds himself incarcerated in Kosuge prison west of Tokyo on a futon on the floor in a cramped cell. He finds himself fed with three bowls of rice a day, a little hot water and little contact with the outside. After 120 days in his conditions denounced by his lawyers and his family, he gets bail.
It is now under house arrest that the former boss prepares his defense for trial in a few months. In April 2020, Carlos Ghosn is expected to face four charges. Two of these concern the non-declaration to the stock market authorities of " deferred compensation " (more than 70 million euros that Ghosn should have received when he left the group).
Radical Defense
But more serious, there are also two accusations of aggravated breach of trust. The former boss incurs up to 15 years in prison. Released on bail in April, Carlos Ghosn prepares his defense from a villa in a posh area of Tokyo but under very strict judicial control. According to Le Monde , he is assisted by an army of lawyers from Japan, the United States, France, the Netherlands and Lebanon.
His line of defense is radical. Carlos Ghosn not only challenges all the accusations, but questions the whole procedure. He suspects her of having been taught only in defense with the active participation of Nissan executives. In other words, a plot to prevent at all costs the Nissan-Renault merger.
►Also read: Renault-Nissan - a year ago, the arrest of Ghosn caused a shockwave
This thesis is shared by some supporters on the French side. In a tribune in the Journal du Dimanche , parliamentarians see in the disappointments of the deposed boss the illustration of an economic war launched by Tokyo against the French part of the alliance. They ask for his repatriation with a view to a judgment in France. The French government rejected this appeal in the name of respect for Japanese institutions.
Consequences on the car giant
Outside Japan, Carlos Ghosn is the target of investigations for financial malfeasance at the request of Nissan in France, the Netherlands and Lebanon. In France, the floor of Nanterre must shed light on the origin of the funds that served for his lavish wedding at the Palace of Versailles. Not surprisingly, this judicial soap opera, which has only just begun, had consequences for the groups that Carlos Ghosn directed.
The first immediate consequence is that Carlos Ghosn has been dismissed from all his functions. Admittedly, Jean-Dominique Sénard has been named boss of Renault and alliance with the Japanese. But the heads continued to waltz. In October 2019, we witnessed Hiroto Saikawa's departures from Nissan's management and Thierry Bolloré, Renault's general manager.
Bolloré was seen as the dolphin of Carlos Ghosn. It is therefore clearly a desire to turn the page, to ease the tensions that have emerged in the alliance. It's urgent. Before discussing any possible merger, the financial health of the entities must be redressed. A health mistreated especially by the global business context gloomy, but not helped by the upheaval caused by the fall of Carlos Ghosn.