Carlos Ghosn loses appeal, stays in jail

Former global automotive powerhouse Carlos Ghosn will remain in a Japanese prison after the rejection of his request for freedom by the Tokyo District Court.

In a decision predicted by his legal team, Ghosn’s counter-attacking performance in court yesterday drew him no closer to his freedom, though it did finally get him ahead of the Nissan board schemers that saw him arrested in the first place.

The man who brought Nissan back from the brink of bankruptcy nearly 20 years ago will remain in detention until this Friday at the earliest (when his current maximum detainment period expires). He is likely to be rearrested by prosecutors, as they’ve done twice already since his November 19 arrest.

Ghosn has been accused of financial misconduct, including deferring more than US$40 million ($A55 million) in retirement benefits and using a Saudi Arabian go-between to push his personal investment losses onto Nissan’s books.

“I have been wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations,” Ghosn said yesterday.

The French-Lebanese-Brazilian remains at the head of Renault, but has been unceremoniously shoved off his chairman’s seat at both Nissan and Mitsubishi.

The icon of the car industry masterminded Renault’s takeover of Nissan when it was teetering on bankruptcy 19 years ago, with Renault taking a controlling 19 per cent stake in the Japanese car-maker.

Nissan bought a 15 per cent cross-holding in Renault, but its shares didn’t come with voting rights. Nissan bought a controlling interest in Mitsubishi last year, which Renault controls through its Nissan holdings.

But the cross-shareholding arrangements have been a burr under the saddle of Nissan executives for years, with Nissan’s Ghosn-appointed chief executive, Hiroto Saikawa, announcing allegations of the chairman’s alleged misconduct and inviting a formal investigation.

The timing of Saikawa’s announcement was just two days before the board meeting where Ghosn had scheduled to formalise Nissan’s absorption as a part of Renault, instead of its current positioning as an alliance partner.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance was the world’s biggest car-maker in 2017 and it will almost certainly retain that title for 2018, shifting more than 10 million cars a year.

“We transformed Nissan, moving it from a position of a debt of 2 trillion yen (US$18.5 billion) in 1999 to cash of 1.8 trillion yen (US$16.6 billion) at the end of 2006, from 2.5 million cars sold in 1999 at a significant loss to 5.8 million cars sold profitably in 2016,” Ghosn said in a statement yesterday.

“These accomplishments - secured alongside the peerless team of Nissan employees worldwide - are the greatest joy of my life, next to my family.”

But while Ghosn’s defence team predicted yesterday’s appeal would fail, it released a statement today insisting it would appeal the rejection in a higher court.

“Usually in such a case, an indictment would be made,” Otsuru said. “In general, in such cases in Japan, it is indeed the case that bail is not approved before the first trial.”

The result could mean Ghosn remains in jail until a court date is finalised, which could be more than six months away.