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Nissan Email chain sheds new light on the downfall of Carlos Ghosn

Former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn gestures as he addresses a large crowd of journalists at the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut on Jan. 8, 2020. (AFP)
Former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn gestures as he addresses a large crowd of journalists at the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut on Jan. 8, 2020. (AFP)
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16 Jun 2020 04:06:41 GMT9
16 Jun 2020 04:06:41 GMT9

A year and a half after Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn's downfall, chains of email correspondence between people in Nissan has shed light on a possible meticulous campaign organized to remove him, supporting previous claims regarding the charges against him being part of a conspiracy by Nissan Executives to prevent the merger of Nissan with French automaker Renault.

While Nissan has said that the decision to oust Ghosn was for what it called “years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity,” the recollections and documents of people familiar with the processes that took place, revealed in an article by Bloomberg, indicate that a powerful group of insiders perceived his prosecution and detention as an opportunity to remould the Japanese car giant’s relationship with Renault on terms more favorable to Nissan.

Discontent with Ghosn’s pledge to cement the French automaker’s partnership with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors in a way that would make the alliance “irreversible,” senior managers at Nissan voiced their concern at how the chairman of both, Nissan and Renault was moving towards further converging the companies, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with discussions at the time.

Emails between Malaysia-born lawyer Hari Nada, who ran Nissan’s chief executive’s office and later struck a cooperation agreement with prosecutors to testify against Ghosn and a senior manager at Nissan, Hitoshi Kawaguchi, who was responsible for government relations revealed discussions in mid 2018 about how Nissan should act to “neutralize his initiatives before it’s too late,” according to an article by Bloomberg.

The day before Ghosn was seized at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Nov. 18, 2018, Nada circulated a memo to Hiroto Saikawa, the-Chief Executive Officer at the time, calling for the termination of the agreement governing the alliance and the restoration of the Japanese company’s right to buy shares in Renault. The memo also mentioned that Nissan would seek to obliterate Renault’s right to nominate Nissan’s chief operating officer or other senior positions, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the memo.

In the document to Saikawa, Nada had written that Ghosn’s removal would be a fundamental change to the world’s biggest car alliance, requiring new governance and that Nissan should be quick to press its position after Ghosn’s arrest, according to Bloomberg.

Concerns about Ghosn’s plans to further integrate the alliance, which would give Renault greater control over Nissan via a 43 percent stake were unfolded in communications between Nada, Saikawa and other senior executives.

Nada, who joined the automaker in the 1990s and oversaw many of Ghosn’s affairs, led the internal probe and implicated in some of the alleged conduct being investigated by the Tokyo prosecutor, Bloomberg reported. Simultaneously, emails show how Nada worked to gather information by traveling to Lebanon and Brazil to investigate Ghosn’s use of company-provided homes.

Days before Ghosn’s arrest, Nada sought to broaden the allegations against Ghosn, telling Saikawa that Nissan should push for more serious breach-of-trust charges, as the initial allegations may be hard to explain to the public, according toBloomberg, citing correspondence at the time and people familiar with the discussions.  The effort should be “supported by media campaign for insurance of destroying CG reputation hard enough,” Nada wrote, using Ghosn’s initials, the article said.

Nissan was able to secure changes to its partnership with Renault months after Ghosn’s arrests, and his post of alliance chairman was eliminated.

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