The Nissan Motor Company’s board voted to remove Carlos Ghosn as chairman and representative director. Carlos Ghosn is the one responsible for rescuing the Japanese carmaker from bankruptcy.
The board is led by CEO Hirota Saikawa, which also decided to remove Greg Kelly as the representative director, Kelly is accused of being a partner in Ghosn’s alleged misconducts. Moreover, this decision was effective immediately.
However, both Ghosn and Kelly are expected to keep their seats as regular directors. This is due to the company’s shareholders being the final arbiters on whether Ghosn and Kelly lose that status. It was found after an internal investigation that Ghosn had committed financial misconduct and Kelly was behind the collusion.
Nissan has accused Ghosn of under-reporting his income over numerous years, abusing company expenses and misusing corporate investment funds. It has been reported by the Japanese media the prosecutors in the case suspect Ghosn hid 5 billion yen ($44 million) of income from the years 2010 to 2014.
As a result of the removal of Ghosn, the direction of the Renault-Nissan alliance is now in jeopardy. It was Ghosn who wanted to merge both companies even when he faced backlash at Nissan. Ghosn is also the chairman and chief executive of Renault.
It has been alleged that Ghosn may have used a Nissan subsidiary based to buy homes around the world for his personal use. Moreover, Ghosn has been accused of funneling company funds to pay for family trips. One example of Ghosn mishandling company funds, would be when his elder sister received about $100,000 a year from Nissan for an advisory position. However, this advisory position did nothing for the company.
To fight these allegations Ghosn has hired a high-profile Japanese defense attorney which focusses on corporate crime. Even without Ghosn or Kelly, Nissan’s vote was expected to go ahead with the remaining seven members.
