Carlos Ghosn, former CEO and chairman of Nissan, says he is not out for revenge with his lawsuit against the Japanese car manufacturer. He does want to hold those who conspired against him accountable.
Ghosn demands more than $1 billion from Nissan and associates for “serious damage” to his finances and reputation.
“What I’m looking for is not revenge,” Ghosn said via video link Tuesday at an event hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. “I just want to ensure that all the criminals and conspirators can’t rest easy in their beds after what they’ve done.”
“Nissan has caused me a lot of damage that cannot be repaired,” said 69-year-old Ghosn, who continues to face criminal and civil charges in Japan. “All I can get is a small compensation.” The former chief executive who set up Nissan’s alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors filed his claims in June with the prosecutor’s office at the Court of Cassation in Lebanon, which has a hearing scheduled for September.
Ghosn, who has French, Brazilian and Lebanese nationalities, was ousted as CEO and arrested in Japan in 2018 over alleged financial misconduct at Nissan. For example, he would have used company money for private purposes, which he still denies. Because he believed he would not receive a fair trial in Japan, he escaped spectacularly via Turkey to Lebanon at the end of 2019. In addition, he would have hidden in a box for sound equipment.
Ghosn was sent to Japan by Renault in 1999 to rescue the ailing Nissan. The Japanese car manufacturer received a lot of money from its French partner. He later became Renault and Nissan’s CEO and the alliance’s chairman.
Ghosn also addressed Renault and Nissan’s attempts to get their troubled partnership back on track. According to him, there is still “a lot of mistrust” between the two car manufacturers, and they are trying to conclude a kind of “mini-alliance”. “What you end up seeing is just a minimal and limited collaboration between the two companies.” He also described the sudden departure of chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta from Nissan last month as a “soap opera”. “Gupta was lucky he didn’t end up in jail,” said Ghosn.