Carlos Ghosn’s Downfall at Nissan and the Aftermath

Carlos Ghosn was a jet-setting captain of industry, the C-suite superhero who helped save struggling automakers in France and Japan. That’s why his arrest in Tokyo on allegations of financial misconduct on Nov. 19, 2018, while he was chief executive officer of Renault SA and chairman of Nissan Motor Co., came as such a shock. Ghosn served two lengthy stints in jail before being released on bail, all the while professing his innocence and saying the deck had been stacked against him. Then, in late 2019, Ghosn slipped out of Japan and fled to Lebanon, where he found sanctuary. The fallout has been seismic for Nissan, which has struggled to move beyond the saga -- especially after it emerged that executives opposed to greater integration with Renault had started working to unseat Ghosn almost a year before his arrest.

Ghosn, 67, was indicted on charges of under-reporting about $80 million in compensation and income during the fiscal years 2010 to 2014 at Nissan. (Ghosn’s pay had been called out before in Japan, where executive compensation is a touchy topic.) He also faced three counts of breach of trust, two of which alleged that he used foreign corporate entities in 2017 and 2018 to funnel $5 million from Nissan into accounts that he controlled and used to purchase a yacht and support a technology investment fund started by his son, Anthony. The charges carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Ghosn had pleaded not guilty and his trial was supposed to have begun in the first half of 2020.