The 68-year-old Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian, who was to be tried in Tokyo for financial embezzlement, has lived in Beirut since his incredible flight from Japan at the end of 2019.
This international arrest warrant issued Thursday, which is worth indictment, is a strong message sent to the Lebanese authorities who do not extradite their nationals and who have banned Mr. Ghosn from traveling.
If the arrest warrant is executed, Carlos Ghosn will be directly presented to an investigating judge, in Nanterre, who will notify him of the charges against him.
In the viewfinder: nearly 15 million euros in payments considered suspicious between RNBV and the distributor of the French car manufacturer in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
The investigating judge in charge of the investigation also issued four other international arrest warrants targeting "the current owners or former managers of the Omani company SBA", said the Nanterre prosecutor's office, contacted by AFP.
More specifically, it is the founder of SBA, his two sons and the current general manager who are targeted, according to two sources familiar with the matter at AFP.
Justice accuses them of acts of money laundering or corruption.
The judicial investigation, opened against X in February 2020 by the Nanterre prosecutor's office, in particular for abuse of corporate assets and money laundering, was indeed extended last July to the head of "corruption".
Justice also suspects Carlos Ghosn of having drawn personal benefit from a sponsorship agreement between Renault and the establishment which manages the Palace of Versailles, by organizing two private parties there, which he disputes.
"Very surprising"
"This is not an arrest warrant issued by France but by the Nanterre court during an ongoing investigation, more precisely by the Nanterre prosecutor's office," reacted to AFP. one of Mr. Ghosn's lawyers, Jean Tamalet, of King and Spalding.
Carlos Ghosn in Tokyo court on June 24, 2019 Kazuhiro NOGI AFP / Archives
"This mandate is very surprising because the investigating judge and the Nanterre prosecutor know perfectly well that Carlos Ghosn, who has always cooperated with justice, is subject to a judicial ban on leaving Lebanese territory", added Mr. Tamalet.
Targeted by an Interpol arrest warrant, the former businessman, who has Lebanese, French and Brazilian nationalities, has been forced to stay in Lebanon since he fled Japan in December 2019, hiding in a audio equipment box.
Arrested in Tokyo a year earlier, in November 2018, he had justified his escape by claiming to have wanted to "escape injustice", denouncing a "plot" by the Japanese authorities.
In an interview with Parisian last February, he also assured that he wanted to return to France.
"For the moment, I cannot return" to France, had thus declared Carlos Ghosn, because of the arrest warrant of Interpol.
"I am French, I was educated in France, I lived in France, I have a very deep connection. France is there, it remains, the governments, them, pass. Of course that the day when I I can, I will go to France”, he had proclaimed.
He had also denounced the "deadly stab carried by the French government and the board of directors of Renault", the car manufacturer having constituted a civil party in this file.
On Friday, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on BFMTV / RMC that he would make "no comment" on the arrest warrant, calling for "let justice do its job".
To carry out their investigations, magistrates had already traveled twice to Beirut.
Last February, the magistrates of Nanterre interviewed two witnesses there.
In the previous June, they had proceeded, with magistrates from Paris, to the free hearing of Mr. Ghosn for five days, for the investigations which target him in Nanterre and Paris.
With regard to the investigation in Paris, it is the consultancy services concluded by RNBV, the Dutch subsidiary embodying the Renault-Nissan alliance, with the former French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer, which are of interest to the investigators.
© 2022 AFP