2007 Nissan 350z Grand Touring 6 Speed Manual 2-door Convertible on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Dutch court orders Ghosn to repay Nissan-Mitsubishi $6 million in wages

AMSTERDAM — A court in Amsterdam on Thursday ordered fugitive former car executive Carlos Ghosn to repay Nissan and Mitsubishi almost 5 million euros ($6.1 million) in wages he received from their Dutch registered joint venture Nissan-Mitsubishi BV in 2018. Nissan and Mitsubishi, which ousted Ghosn as chairman of their companies and of their joint venture after his arrest for financial misconduct in 2018, claimed Ghosn had wrongly granted the wages to himself. Ghosn had brought the case himself, demanding 15 million euros in compensation for missed wages and severance payments as he claimed Nissan and Mitsubishi had violated Dutch labor laws when they dismissed him from the Amsterdam-based joint venture in 2019. But the district court in Amsterdam sided with the car companies, stating that Ghosn did not have a valid employment agreement with the joint venture, as it lacked the required consent of the boards of Nissan and Mitsubishi. The amount Ghosn needs to repay equals the net payments he received from the joint venture between April and November 2018, the court said. Ghosn, who has denied wrongdoing, was chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi and chief executive of Renault when he was arrested in Japan in 2018 on charges of underreporting his salary and using company funds for personal purposes. He fled to Lebanon in December 2019 hidden in carry-on luggage on a private jet that flew out of Kansai Airport, and has remained in that country since. ($1 = 0.8204 euros) (Reporting by Bart Meijer, editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir) Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2021 Nissan Rogue Platinum interior tour

US approves extradition of Americans accused of arranging Carlos Ghosn's escape

In the latest chapter of ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's dramatic downfall, two Americans are about to face Japan's notoriously tough justice system. The US State Department has approved the extradition of Michael and Peter Taylor, who are accused of helping Ghosn flee Japan, reports the Associated Press. Ghosn was under house arrest in Japan, awaiting trial for alleged financial malfeasance during his tenure as head of Nissan and the Renault-Nissan Alliance. In December 2019, Michael Taylor (pictured), a former member of the US Special Forces, and his son Peter, allegedly smuggled Ghosn out of Japan in a musical instrument case on two charter flights, from Japan to Turkey, and then from Turkey to Ghosn's childhood home of Lebanon. According to the AP, the Taylors received two payments from the Ghosn family totaling $1.36 million (one to Peter Taylor's company and the other in cryptocurrency). Michael Taylor ran a business security firm after retiring from the US Army. The Taylors have been in jail in Massachusetts since their arrest in May. A Federal judge was attempting to block the extradition request from Japan, but on Wednesday, the State Department overruled her, the Taylors' lawyers said. Ghosn, for his part, maintains his innocence and says that he fled Japan because he didn't expect a fair trial in Japan's court system, which has a 99.9 percent conviction rate. Unless this saga takes another unexpected turn, the Taylors will now have to face that very system. Government/Legal Nissan Renault

Automakers drop support for Trump effort against California emissions

WASHINGTON — Toyota, Fiat Chrysler (now known as Stellantis following its merger with Peugeot) and other major automakers said on Tuesday they were joining General Motors in abandoning support for former President Donald Trump's effort to bar California from setting its own zero emission vehicle rules. The automakers, which also included Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Subaru, said in a joint statement they were withdrawing from an ongoing legal challenge to California's emission-setting powers, "in a gesture of good faith and to find a constructive path forward" with President Joe Biden. The automakers, along with the National Automobile Dealers Association, said they were aligned "with the Biden administrationÂ’s goals to achieve year-over-year improvements in fuel economy standards." Nissan in December withdrew from the challenge after GM's decision in November shocked the industry and won praise from Biden. On Monday, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia to put the California emissions litigation on hold to "ensure due respect for the prerogative of the executive branch to reconsider the policy decisions of a prior administration." Biden has directed agencies to quickly reconsider TrumpÂ’s 2019 decision to revoke CaliforniaÂ’s authority to set its own auto tailpipe emissions standards and require rising numbers of zero-emission vehicles, as well as Trump's national fuel economy rollback. Asked to respond to the automakers' action, White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said in a statement that "after four years of putting us in reverse, it is time to restart and build a sustainable future, grow domestic manufacturing, and deliver clean cars for America." California Governor Gavin Newsom praised the automakers on Twitter for "dropping your climate-denying, air-polluting, Trump-era lawsuit against CA" and urged them to join the voluntary framework. TALKS WITH BIDEN Separately, an industry trade group on Tuesday proposed to start talks with Biden on revised fuel economy standards that would be higher than Trump-era standards but lower than ones set during the prior Democratic administration. The Trump administration in March finalized a rollback of U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to require 1.5% annual increases in efficiency through 2026, well below the 5% yearly boosts under the Obama administration rules it discarded.