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Ghosn: Nissan-Renault strife and his arrest can be traced back to Macron

PARIS — Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said on Wednesday that a surprise corporate move, orchestrated five years ago by French President Emmanuel Macron, who was then economy minister, soured relations between Renault and Nissan and contributed to his ouster. Ghosn, the former head of the car alliance, said Nissan executives and Japanese officials were shocked by a 2015 decision by the French government to increase its voting rights at Renault. "This left a big bitterness. Not only with the management of Nissan, but also the government of Japan," Ghosn told reporters, although he did not name Macron. "And this is where the problem started." Macron's office did not respond to a request for comment. In April 2015, as a 37-year-old minister with then-unknown presidential ambitions, Macron ordered a surprise increase in the state's stake in Renault designed to secure double voting rights. The overnight move gave the French state a blocking minority in Renault, which in turn controlled Nissan via its 43.4 percent stake in the Japanese firm. According to French and Japanese sources, that rattled the Japanese side of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which feared a national champion was falling under the control of the French government. In the ensuing eight-month boardroom fight between Macron's ministry and Hiroto Saikawa — Nissan's second-in-command at the time — Ghosn sees the seeds of what he says grew into a conspiracy to have him arrested and oust him from control of Nissan. The 65-year-old fled Japan last month as he awaited trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. He is now in Lebanon, where he spoke to international media on Wednesday. "There started to be some kind of defiance from our Japanese colleagues, not only about the alliance but also about me," Ghosn told reporters. "And some of our Japanese friends thought: The only way to get rid of the influence of Renault on Nissan is to get rid of him," he added. "Unfortunately, they were right." Following Ghosn's arrest in November 2018, Nissan executives said that said governance had been eroded by RenaultÂ’s control.

Japan prosecutors seek 2 years in prison for ex-Nissan exec Greg Kelly

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors demanded two years in prison for former Nissan executive Greg Kelly and accused him of joining a “conspiracy” to pay his former boss Carlos Ghosn illicitly in closing arguments Wednesday in a yearlong trial. “That unpaid compensation existed is clear,” prosecutor Yukio Kawasaki told the Tokyo District Court, reading briskly from a thick document. Kelly, a 30-year veteran at the Japanese automaker, was living in the U.S. when he was arrested in November 2018 upon returning to Japan to attend a meeting. The first American to be appointed to NissanÂ’s board, Kelly says he is innocent. He sat calmly in the courtroom, wearing his usual red tie and dark suit, alongside defense lawyers. Everyone in the courthouse was wearing a mask because of the pandemic. Kelly told The Associated Press in an interview last month he did not know all the details of GhosnÂ’s pay. He was determined to retain Ghosn, Nissan's former chairman, because of his extraordinary management skills and wanted to pay him in a legal way, he said. Ghosn was arrested at the same time as Kelly and also maintains he is innocent. He skipped bail in late 2019 and fled to Lebanon, the country of his ancestry. It has no extradition treaty with Japan. The charges center around a pay cut of about 1 billion yen ($10 million) a year that Ghosn voluntarily started taking from 2010, halving his pay after disclosure of high executive pay became mandatory in Japan. Nissan Motor officials considered various ways to make up for the money Ghosn gave up, such as paying him consulting fees after retirement. They also mulled other methods such as payments through subsidiaries and stock options. Nothing had been paid at the time of the arrests. The contention is over whether that money should have been reported as compensation as a de facto promised sum under a binding contract, or didnÂ’t need to be disclosed until it was finalized. Ghosn has said a group at Nissan engineered his arrest because they feared that French automaker Renault, which owns 43% of Nissan, would gain more control over the company. Other Nissan officials made similar comments during KellyÂ’s trial. Renault sent Ghosn to Nissan in 1999 to lead its rescue from the brink of bankruptcy. He successfully steered the maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models for nearly two decades.

Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato and GMC Acadia driven | Autoblog Podcast #837

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Electric, John Beltz Snyder. They're both jazzed after driving the off-road-ish and totally sublime Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato. John recently drove the new GMC Acadia, Greg spent some time in the Toyota Camry, and they also discuss Autoblog's long-term Subaru WRX. In the news, the Porsche 918 Cayman and Boxster are reportedly ending production, while it's officially the end of the road for the Nissan GT-R and Volvo S60. Fisker has officially filed for bankruptcy. Cadillac has shown off a couple cool Blackwing special editions in honor of Le Mans. Finally, we reach in the mailbag and help a listener pick a sporty convertible in this week's Spend My Money segment. Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #837 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving: 2024 Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato 2024 GMC Acadia 2025 Toyota Camry Long-term 2023 Subaru WRX Porsche 718 Cayman and Boxster allegedly end production in October 2025 2024 Nissan GT-R the final year for the U.S. market 2025 Volvo S60 the last model year for the sedan in the U.S. Fisker files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 2025 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing 'Le Monstre' and CT4-V Blackwing Petit Pataud limited editions celebrate Le Mans Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related video: Podcasts Cadillac Fisker GMC Lamborghini Nissan Porsche Subaru Toyota Volvo Coupe Crossover SUV Electric Hybrid Luxury Off-Road Vehicles Performance Supercars Sedan