*
Renault S.A. Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard (pictured) told investors that the French carmaker’s alliance with Nissan has been “damaged” by its former Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s arrest over alleged financial fraud, but insisted the alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi should be preserved as it is vital for Renault’s success.
“There will be no success of Renault without the success of the Alliance,” Senard stated. He stressed it is important for everyone to take action in an effort to repair and rebuild the alliance between the three carmakers.
Earlier this year, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi announced the “restart of the alliance” following the change in management as a result of Ghosn’s arrest and named Senard as the new head of the alliance.
TOKYO — An executive of Nissan Motor Co.’s sales agent in Oman sent an email to a close aide to the auto giant’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn detailing an allegedly illegal remittance from a Nissan subsidiary, sources close to the matter said.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has confirmed the content of the email and apparently views it as important evidence that Ghosn was aware of the illicit remittance to the Oman agent. The former chairman of Nissan, France’s Renault SA, and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. was slapped with his fourth arrest warrant and taken back into custody early on April 4 over the alleged payment. The prosecutors’ office’s special investigation unit also searched Ghosn’s residence in Tokyo.
The latest arrest warrant accuses Ghosn of having Nissan Middle East FZE, its United Arab Emirates subsidiary, remit $15 million to its Omani sales agent SBA between December 2015 and July 2018, $5 million (some 563 million yen) of which was then transferred to GFI, an investment company Ghosn effectively owns in Lebanon.
The former Nissan chairman has apparently denied the allegations. Prosecutors seized a personal computer from Ghosn’s home in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2018. The PC contained an email detailing the remittance to a Ghosn aide from an Indian man serving as both an SBA executive and CEO of GFI. SBA is owned by Suhail Bahwan, a longtime acquaintance of the ex-Nissan chairman, according to people familiar with the matter.
Nissan funds remitted to GFI, which is a dummy company, were subsequently funneled to a company held under the name of Ghosn’s wife and others, and there are suspicions that part of the money was used to buy a pleasure boat used by the Ghosn family. The Tokyo prosecutors’ special investigation unit is poised to clarify how the allegedly misappropriated money has been used. Ghosn was held at the Tokyo Detention House for 108 days after his initial arrest. He was released on bail on March 6 this year after being hit with two more arrest warrants.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190405/p2a/00m/0na/007000c
***
Hornet – Oman is behind Nissan Emperor Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested. When media reports on Thursday revealed a case of consideration of Sultanate Oman to arrest president Nissan’s article, Carlos Ghosn. Ghosn’s re-arrest was the result of a new case involving suspicious payments made by Nissan to a company in Oman during Ghosn’s tenure as head of the company, Reuters reported.
According to the sources, Nissan’s partner Renault has informed the French prosecution of discrediting charges to a business partner of Renault and Nissan in Oman when Ghosn was the chief executive of the French car company. Nissan said that her regional branch had made interesting payments for more than $ 30 million in inquiries to Bahia Oman Motor Company’s Suf Bahwan.
The sources added that the evidence sent to France’s prosecution last weekend proved that most of the money was eventually transferred to a Lebanese controlled company close to Ghosn.
Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo last November and faces allegations of financial corruption and dishonesty following allegations that he did not reveal about $ 82 million of salary and the conversion of personal financial losses to Nissan accounts during the financial crisis.
An Oman behind arrest the Emperor "Nissan" "Carlos Ghosn" for the fourth time?
***
23 April 2019
A Lebanese company is at the centre of alleged payments linking Nissan and its partner Renault to a firm related to jailed former auto titan Carlos Ghosn and his son, according to people familiar with the matter.
The automakers suspect that Good Faith Investments, a Beirut-based company known as GFI, facilitated money transfers to a firm connected to Carlos and Anthony Ghosn, said the people, who asked not to be named because these details aren’t public. Japanese prosecutors indicted Carlos Ghosn Monday on charges of misdirecting Nissan funds for personal use, after arresting and detaining him again earlier in the month.
The architect behind what is the world’s biggest auto alliance, Mr Ghosn has denied the latest charges, which follow earlier indictments for transferring personal trading losses to Nissan and under-reporting his income. The shock downfall in Tokyo of the the former chairman of Nissan and Renault has rattled the auto union between the two companies and smaller partner Mitsubishi Motors, amid a period of disruption in the global car industry.
While Japanese authorities haven’t disclosed the name of the distributor, investigations by Nissan and Renault are said to have found that the automakers made payments to Oman-based Suhail Bahwan Automotive Group – known as SBA – under the guise of marketing incentives. The Japanese automaker also filed a criminal complaint against Mr Ghosn Monday for allegedly deploying company funds for personal use.
Nissan and Renault’s contributions to SBA over consecutive years were made through a reserve fund overseen by Mr Ghosn, which is not normal practice for payments of this type, according to the people.
SBA is then suspected of having made payments to the Lebanese holding company GFI through a person named Divyendu Kumar, a senior executive at the parent company of SBA, according to two of the people. A filing by Beirut-based GFI shows he is also chairman and majority owner of that company.
Multiple attempts to contact Mr Kumar didn’t yield a response and SBA didn’t respond to emails and calls seeking comment. A representative for GFI could not be reached.
Mr Ghosn asked for money transfers from GFI to Shogun Investments LLC, which counts his son Anthony among its managers, according to the people. Between 2015 and 2018, GFI transferred more than $25 million (Dh91.8m) to Shogun Investments, which was set up by Mr Ghosn as an investment vehicle, they said.
Renault investigators suspect money from the carmaker was used for Anthony Ghosn’s fintech startup, Shogun Enterprises, and the purchase of a yacht, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg previously.
Anthony Ghosn has denied that Shogun Enterprises received funds from Nissan and Renault, telling Japanese TV Asahi on April 13 that the firm didn’t get money from GFI and that there are at least 10 companies called Shogun. He declined to comment at the time on whether any funds from the carmakers had gone into any other companies related to Shogun Enterprises.
A spokesman for the Ghosn family, his lawyer and Anthony Ghosn didn’t return repeated requests for comment for this story. It’s unclear whether Carlos Ghosn has a formal role in Shogun Investments or related companies. Anthony Ghosn is listed in a US stock market filing as a manager of at least one other company named Shogun: New-York-based Shogun Emergence Capital Fund.
Renault and Nissan declined to comment on specific allegations, but a spokesman for Nissan noted that “further discoveries related to Ghosn’s misconduct continue to emerge.”
“The company’s focus remains on addressing weaknesses in governance that failed to prevent this misconduct,” he said by email.
Mr Ghosn’s initial arrest in November at a Tokyo airport was triggered by a Nissan probe into its activities that was shared with Japanese prosecutors.
Nissan and Renault started a joint inquiry into their former chairman earlier this year but have provided few public details on the investigation. Renault earlier this month flagged questionable payments to a distributor in the Middle East and said the findings could lead to legal action in France. Mr Ghosn’s lawyer has said this may have triggered his client’s latest arrest.
***
Carlos Ghosn – Takashi Takano – Junichiro Hironaka
Opinion of the Carlos Ghosn case
*
Contact Admin:
Admin kan gekontak word by
volksvryheid9@gmail.com
ONAFHANKLIK 