Nissan Sues Ghosn in Japan, Seeks $91 Million in Damages

Nissan Motor Co. isn’t done with its pursuit of claims against Carlos Ghosn, suing for 10 billion yen ($91 million) in damages from the former chairman of the Japanese automaker and its alliance with Renault SA.

The lawsuit filed in Yokohama District Court seeks to “recover a significant part of the monetary damages inflicted on the company by its former Chairman as a result of years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity,” Nissan said in a statement Wednesday.

Ghosn was arrested in November 2018 on charges of financial wrongdoing, and was facing trial in Japan until he made a dramatic escape to Lebanon at the end of December. Nissan and Japanese prosecutors claim that the former auto executive under-reported his income and used company money for person gain, charges which Ghosn has denied.

Nissan isn’t the only party intent on going after Ghosn. Masako Mori, Japan’s justice minister said recently that she will “never give up” on bringing Ghosn to trial, even though the country has so far made little progress on its efforts to have him brought back from Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan.

Ghosn, for his part is also pursuing claims against Nissan, saying that he was wrongly dismissed from the carmaker’s Dutch unit and by a joint venture called Nissan-Mitsubishi BV, claiming 15 million euros in losses ($16.4 million).

The 65-year-old, who was facing two trials on charges of financial misconduct in Japan, jumped bail and fled the country late last year with the help of a security detail led by a former Green Beret. Ghosn has since accused executives at Nissan of plotting with prosecutors in Japan to have him unjustly arrested.

 

Source: Bloomberg

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