Nissan takes down it’s chairman Carlos Ghosn, who saved it from bankruptcy
High pay executives, are known to be very creative with finding ways to avoid paying too much taxes.
But to be taken down by the company you helped save from bankruptcy must hurt like hell …
Carlos Ghosn, the giant figure in the car industry, who once was CEO of both Nissan and Renault at the same time, and currently is the chairman of Nissan, chairman and chief executive of Renault and chairman of Mitsubishi Motors, has been arrested in Japan over claims of “financial misconduct”.
The arrest is a result of an internal investigation in Nissan that found him guilty of “significant acts of misconduct”, and he will be sacked from the Japanese firm after a board meeting on Thursday, its CEO said.
Carlos Ghosn, who have restructured Renault and earned the name of «Cost Cutter», joined and lead Nissan in 1999, when it was saddled with 20 billion US$ in debt & 6 billion US$ of annual losses. In 2 years he turned it into a profitable company.
Ghosn was until recently CEO of Nissan, and even after being replaced by Hiroto Saikawa, he remained chairman of Nissan, and was able to exert great influence in the company, which might explain the nasty tactic taken by Hiroto to rid himself of any oversight exerted by Ghosn tenure.
Or maybe, Ghosn latest plan to merge Renault and Nissan was a bit too much for the Nissan board …
Carlos Ghosn had been planning a merger between Renault and Nissan before his arrest in Tokyo this week, a deal that the Japanese carmaker’s board opposed and was looking for ways to block.
Several Nissan board members expected a bid to materialize in the coming months, according to one person close to the board. Another source said that a merger was likely to happen “within months”, and a third said it was under active consideration.
Mr Ghosn was the driving force behind the merger plans, which met with fierce resistance from Nissan’s board, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Renault’s 43 per cent stake in Nissan gives it unusual levels of control, with the ability to appoint senior executives. Nissan’s 15 per cent stake in Renault comes with no voting rights and gives the business no control over its French counterpart.
“The board [of Nissan] always said they would fight very hard against any reorganisation that entrenched that second-tier status,” said one person close to the board. source
Carlos Ghosn is accused of tax evasion by under-reporting his pay package and personal use of company assets. This matter should have been an issue investigated by the Japanese state, instead of an internal issue spearheaded by Nissan new CEO.
