At the beginning of October 2019, there was a new twist in the saga of the internal audit that triggered the resignation of Hiroto Saikawa as CEO of Nissan in September.
Christina Murray, the former Audit Chief had drawn up a list of 80 people who she believed were aware that Carlos Ghosn would receive deferred remuneration upon retirement.
Ms Murray even wanted to go further by setting up a disciplinary committee that would assess the actual involvement of these 80 people and take, what she deemed to be, adequate measures. According to the Wall Street Journal, her efforts were quashed from within Nissan. According to an internal email, the person who prevented the creation of this disciplinary committee was none other than Hari Nada
“He told me that Hari told him it was not necessary, I cautioned him about following Hari on this, as Hari might have a reason to not want a decision-making committee to hear about certain misconduct.”
Christina MUrray
The newspaper also described the situation concerning Hari Nada as very embarrassing, as a member of the Board of Directors in charge of audits openly admitted.
This general attitude impeded the search for the truth in this matter and increased the suspicion surrounding Mr Nada. For certain people in Nissan, there was an actual conflict of interests once Hari Nada stayed on as Vice-President in charge of legal affairs, despite having negotiated a plea bargain that led to the arrest of Carlos Ghosn.
This view was confirmed by another source cited by Les Echos:
“But not all of the loose ends have been tied up and, as long as certain people continue to occupy key positions, the situation will remain toxic.”
Hari Nada was still a Nissan employee in the summer of 2020.
This entire episode serves to undermine still further the credibility of those who deny that Carlos Ghosn has been the victim of an orchestrated plot.