France Reportedly Issues Arrest Warrant For Fugitive Car Magnate Carlos Ghosn

Topline

France has issued an international arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn, accusing the former Renault and Nissan CEO of taking Renault funds for personal use, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday—the latest legal problems to strike Ghosn, who has lived as a fugitive for nearly three years following unrelated allegations of financial misdeeds at Nissan.

FILE – Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, … [+] in Dbayeh, north of Beirut, Lebanon on May 25, 2021. A Tokyo court will hand down a verdict Thursday, March 3, 2022, in the criminal trial of Greg Kelly, an American and former executive at Japanese automaker Nissan. Kelly was charged with financial wrongdoing in under-reporting the compensation of Carlos Ghosn, his former boss and Nissan ex-chairman. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Key Facts

A French magistrate issued arrest warrants for Ghosn and four other people associated with the Oman-based vehicle distributor Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, a French prosecutor’s office told the Journal.

Prosecutors reportedly accused Ghosn of funneling funds from Renault—a French automaker—through the Omani car dealer to use for personal luxury purchases such as a 120-foot yacht.

Ghosn has denied misusing company funds.

Ghosn, a French and Lebanese citizen, will not face any immediate risk from the arrest warrant because Lebanon—where he has lived since 2019—does not extradite its citizens, though he said last year he was willing to comply with the French government.

Unnamed sources around Ghosn told the Journal it isn’t out of the question that he may travel to France to face trial one day, though the Lebanese government currently has possession of his passports, according to the Journal.

Key Background

France began investigating Ghosn in 2019 over parties he threw at the Palace of Versailles, alleging he misappropriated Renault money to fund the parties. Japanese prosecutors had also separately accused Ghosn of financial misconduct a year prior, claiming he underreported his income as the head of Japanese carmaker Nissan—allegations he has denied and said are part of a conspiracy by Nissan officials and prosecutors to remove him from the company’s board. After being placed on house arrest in Tokyo by the Japanese government in 2019, Ghosn fled to Lebanon by reportedly hiding inside a musical instrument box, and he has lived in the Middle Eastern country as a fugitive since then.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelinehalpert/2022/04/21/france-reportedly-issues-arrest-warrant-for-fugitive-car-magnate-carlos-ghosn/