Carlos Ghosn has accused “backstabbing” Nissan executives
of a “conspiracy” that led to his arrest, in a video revealed Tuesday
by his representatives.
The video was recorded
shortly before Ghosn was rearrested last week by prosecutors in Tokyo on
new allegations. He had been out on bail while facing three charges of
financial misconduct.
In the brief video, played by his lawyers at
a press conference, Ghosn repeated that he was “innocent of all the
charges that have been brought against me.”
He denounced a
“conspiracy” against him and said events had been “twisted in a way to
paint a personage of greed, a personage of dictatorship.”
“This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is about backstabbing,” he said in the video.
Ghosn
did not, however, name specific individuals at Nissan, with his lawyer
saying that the defence team had opted to cut parts of the recording
that pointed the finger at particular figures.
Ghosn was
rearrested by prosecutors last week while out on bail in Tokyo after
they announced they were investigating new allegations against him.
A
court has extended his detention until April 14, when prosecutors can
apply to hold him for an additional 10 days before they must release him
unless they bring charges or file new allegations.
Fresh Allegations
Prosecutors
said Ghosn had been detained over transfers of Nissan funds totalling
$15 million between late 2015 and the middle of 2018 to a dealership in
Oman.
They suspect around $5 million of these funds were syphoned
off for Ghosn’s use, including for the purchase of a luxury yacht and
financing personal investments.
Prosecutors accuse Ghosn of having “betrayed” his duty not to cause losses to Nissan “in order to benefit himself.”
Ghosn
already faces three formal charges: two of deferring his salary and
concealing that in official shareholders’ documents, and a further
charge of seeking to shift investment losses to the firm.
Ghosn’s
case has defied expectations from the start, with his shock November 19
arrest after he landed in Tokyo on a private jet.
He spent 108
days in a detention centre in northern Tokyo before being dramatically
released on bail of around $9 million on March 6, emerging from
incarceration dressed in a workman’s uniform and face mask in an
apparent bid to avoid the media.
He then lived in a
court-appointed apartment in Tokyo without commenting on his situation
despite huge international and Japanese media interest in his case that
has shocked and surprised from the beginning.
However, just as
reports began to surface that he could be rearrested, Ghosn emerged on
Twitter to announce plans to hold a news conference on April 11.
His
rearrest came just days after news that Renault, which Ghosn also once
headed, had handed French prosecutors documents showing suspicious
transfers worth millions of euros authorised by the auto tycoon.
Shortly after his arrest, his wife Carole — who had been living in Tokyo with Ghosn while he was on bail — left Japan.
She
told a French newspaper she had been forced to flee Tokyo with support
from the French ambassador and was able to use her US passport after
having to surrender her Lebanese one to prosecutors.
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