Nissan sacks Carlos Ghosn as chairman

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Nissan sacks Carlos Ghosn as chairman

Tokyo - Ghosn stands accused of under-reporting his income by millions of dollars and a host of other financial irregularities.

By AFP

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Published: Thu 22 Nov 2018, 3:30 PM

Last updated: Thu 22 Nov 2018, 9:38 PM

Nissan board members have sacked Carlos Ghosn as chairman, local media reported on Thursday, which would be a spectacular fall from grace for the once-revered boss whose arrest for financial misconduct stunned the car industry and the business world.

Public broadcaster NHK and business daily Nikkei both said the seven-member board had decided to remove the 64-year-old from the top of the firm he has led for almost two decades.

A source close to the company confirmed the information and said an official statement should be available shortly.

Ghosn stands accused of under-reporting his income by millions of dollars and a host of other financial irregularities, alleged after a months-long internal Nissan probe following a whistleblower report.

His ouster as chairman represents an astonishing turnaround for the titan of the auto sector who revived the Japanese brand and forged an alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, which sold a combined 10.6 million cars last year, more than any other firm.

It also throws the future of the alliance into doubt, as Ghosn was the architect of the fractious tie-up, which employs 450,000 people globally, and the glue holding it together.

Prosecutors intercepted the Brazil-born tycoon on Monday as he landed in Tokyo on a private jet, accusing him and another executive Greg Kelly of understating the chairman's income by around $44 million between June 2011 and June 2015.

His fate as Nissan chairman appeared sealed just hours later as his hand-picked successor as CEO, Hiroto Saikawa launched an impassioned broadside at his former mentor, muttering about a "dark side" to the Ghosn era and urging his sacking.

Even after being jettisoned as chairman, Ghosn remains technically a member of the board as a full shareholders' meeting is required to remove him.

Ghosn is being held custody in a Tokyo detention centre and has not been seen in public nor made any comments since his arrest.


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