In Japan, Carlos Ghosn cancelled a press conference he wanted to host after the judges’ third refusal to allow him to see his wife. The prosecutors, for their part, are not slackening their efforts and request the assistance of the Swiss authorities to find evidence of Carlos Ghosn’s guilt.
In Paris, on July 3, 2019, a search was carried out in Boulogne-Billancourt, at Renault’s headquarters as part of the preliminary investigation into the venue rental fees offered to the Ghosn’s couple for a private event at the Château de Versailles.
The investigators returned to the headquarters the following week, on July 11, to seize computer equipment as part of the two other parts of the investigation: the celebration of the 15 years anniversary of the Alliance in Versailles and the transfers from Renault and Nissan’s to a distributor in Oman.
But it was in Amsterdam, the city where the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is headquartered, that Carlos Ghosn launched his legal counterattack on July 17, 2019, by suing Nissan and Mitsubishi for wrongful termination of his employment contract.
The main aim of this counter-attack is to deport part of the case to a European jurisdiction that Carlos Ghosn’s defence team considers impartial.
Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers plead for the simple application of the rules of law. If in Japan it has been possible for him to be arrested, put in prison and then dismissed without having had the opportunity to respond to his accusers, the standard of Dutch law does not allow such action.
Carlos Ghosn was dismissed while he was imprisoned in Kosugé prison and his Dutch lawyer Laurens De Graaf recalls :
“If a company, in this case Nissan-Mitsubishi B.V. (NMBV), wants to fire one of its directors, it must clearly indicate the reasons and the charges against him before firing him, and must provide documents proving the merits of their approach so that the director can defend himself. However, this did not happen in the case of Carlos Ghosn and renders the dismissal null and void”.
Laurens De Graaf – Carlos Ghosn lawyer
In addition, through this procedure, Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers in the Netherlands are trying to obtain the prosecution file that the Tokyo prosecutor’s office refuses to communicate to the defense team.
They also request the presence of Hiroto Saikawa, Chief Executive Officer of Nissan, and Osamu Masuko, Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi to testify, but this time under oath, that according to their past statements, they were not aware of the agreements on Carlos Ghosn’s remuneration.
Now, as Le Figaro will report, in reference to Hiroto Saikawa:
“Did he really ignore the remuneration set up at NMBV for Carlos Ghosn when the manufacturer had validated the transfer of funds to the small Dutch company? Was it not logical that a structure designed to seek synergies should interest its managers in their realization? In this case, did Hiroto Saikawa envisage being remunerated by NMBV in the long run? In response to this question, Nissan indicated that it could not comment.”