Japanese prosecutors are giving new impetus to Carlos Ghosn
TOKYO – Japanese prosecutors on Monday formally charged Carlos Ghosn, the former head of the Nissan-Renault auto alliance, with breach of trust, claiming a new count of financial displeasure on his existing charges in a move that puts pressure on him and ensures he still imprisoned.
Herr. Ghosn, who continues to maintain her innocence, has been in a detention center on the outskirts of Tokyo since April 4, when the prosecutors swam into their apartment in an early morning. They seized evidence and deleted him in prison – his fourth arrest in the case so far – before attempting to take his wife in to ask questions.
He was initially arrested in November with suspicion of hiding the real amount of his compensation and spent over 100 days in detention, racking up two additional arrests. Including Monday's accusation, the accusers finally accused him of four charges of financial failure, including temporarily shifting his personal financial losses to Nissan's books.
He was released in early March after paying $ 9 million in citizens and agreeing strict restrictions on his activities that he accused of having a virtual house arrest.
But prosecutors soon revealed that the original charges were merely a disguise against more serious claims. After the April attack, the prosecutors said they investigated Ghosn's allegations that he was using a Nissan subsidiary to divert $ 5 million to himself.
Prosecutors have not disclosed details of the allegations, but an internal investigation by Nissan found that Ghosn had authorized over $ 30 million in payments to a business partner in Oman, according to a person familiar with reports, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company was still have not made their full facts public.
Part of the Ved money was sent to a Lebanese company controlled by Mr. Ghosn, who then gave money to companies controlled by his wife, Carole, and his son, according to Japanese news reports. Mrs. Ghosn appeared before a Japanese judge in mid-April to answer questions about the allegations against her husband.
Neither Mr Ghosn's wife nor his son have been accused of injustice. Mrs Ghosn has said that her husband is innocent. His representatives have said that the payments were merely business.
In a brief statement on Monday, the Tokyo Prosecutor's Office told it that it had presented Mr. Ghosn with "an extra charge to break the corporate law."
Nissan on the same day he said it had filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Ghosn in connection with the charges.
"Nissan filed the complaint after deciding that payments from Nissan to a foreign vehicle sales company via a subsidiary were actually led by Ghosn for his personal enrichment and was not necessary from a commercial point of view, the company said in a statement.
Since Ghosn's recent arrest, his Japanese legal team has struggled to get him released and appeals to the Supreme Court of the country, but judges refused to release him, won by the accusers' argument that Mr. Ghosn would tamper with evidence or testify of his release
Monday was the last day for the prosecution either to release Mr. Ghosn or charge him after his arrest this month.
His legal team has filed a new bail application, a spokesman for Ghosn said. Ghosn's treatment of Japan's legal system has brought global attention to the harsh tactics of the country's prosecutors.
His family and legal tea m have argued that several arrests are supposed to force Mr. Ghosn to confess a crime he did not commit
Japanese prosecutors are notorious for extracting confessions from suspects, sometimes under coercion: in 2017, 88 percent of those who became tried, according to data maintained by Japan's Supreme Court.
In a video task after the arrest In this month, Mr. Ghosn insisted that he was innocent and said that the charges against him were the result of a plot called by Nissan leaders, afraid of blaming many years of bad economic results in the company.
"My greatest wish," he said, "is to have a fair trial."