The international arrest warrant issued Thursday, April 21 by a Nanterre magistrate against Carlos Ghosn is the culmination of difficult judicial cooperation between France and Lebanon. These procedural difficulties were foreseeable since there is no legal convention between Lebanon and France. The former boss of Renault-Nissan is under investigation for misuse of corporate assets, organized money laundering and corruption. The latter strongly denies all the alleged facts.
68-year-old Carlos Ghosn has lived in Lebanon since his incredible flight from Japan at the end of 2019, where he was to be tried for financial embezzlement, to the detriment of Nissan. “Not a yen from Nissan and not a euro from Renault has been embezzled for the benefit of Carlos Ghosn”, assures one of his lawyers, Jean Tamalet.
In France, Carlos Ghosn is targeted by two instructions, in Paris and Nanterre. If this mandate is executed, the ex-CEO will be presented to an examining magistrate in Nanterre who will notify him of his indictment. The arrest warrant against him was issued by a Nantes investigating judge for “abuse of corporate assets”, “breach of trust”, “organized money laundering”, and “passive corruption” from 2012 to 2017. judicial information, open against X in February 2020 by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office, in particular for misuse of company assets and money laundering, was extended last July to the charge of “corruption”.
15 million euros in payments
In the sights of justice? Nearly 15 million euros in payments considered suspicious between RNBV, the Dutch subsidiary embodying the Renault-Nissan alliance, and the distributor of the French car manufacturer in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
In this scheme, the founder of SBA Suhail Bahwan, his two sons, and a former general manager are suspected of “organized money laundering”. And three of them are implicated for “abuse of corporate assets” and “active corruption”: billionaire Suhail Bahwan, his son Ahmed, and Divyendu Kumar, general manager from 2008 to 2018. The beneficiary would be Carlos Ghosn. Suhail Bahwan “formally denies having taken part (…) in the offenses covered by the arrest warrant”, his lawyer Christophe Ingrain told AFP. His sons and the former managing director could not be reached.
According to a source close to the investigation, serious or concordant indications lead to the suspicion that Carlos Ghosn ordered the payment of Renault bonuses to the SBA distributor, “disguised by a certain number of accounting entries such as bonuses, recoveries on stock”, and part of which was then sent to front companies belonging to Carlos Ghosn’s entourage.
The investigation also uncovered a previously unrevealed ‘return-commission’ scheme, according to the newspaper’s revelations. The echoes published this Monday, May 2. This system was identified thanks to the recovery in November 2018 of a computer used in Beirut by his former assistant. A kickback is a “sum of money, part of which is secretly returned to the seller by the intermediary, after the conclusion of a market”, reports Robert. This illegal practice allows the seller to recover part of the sum via the intermediary.
In this case, justice also suspects Carlos Ghosn of having personally benefited from a sponsorship agreement between Renault and the establishment managing the Palace of Versailles, by organizing two private parties there, which he disputes.
A survey of consulting services
To carry out their investigations, French magistrates had already traveled twice to Beirut. In February 2022, the magistrates of Nanterre interviewed two witnesses there. In June 2021, they had proceeded, with magistrates from Paris, to the free hearing of Carlos Ghosn for five days, for the investigations targeting him in Nanterre and Paris.
The investigation in Paris is interested in the consulting services concluded by RNBV with the former French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer. In this case “which is ongoing”, “no arrest warrant” has been issued against Carlos Ghosn, a judicial source told AFP.
Also targeted by a Japanese arrest warrant, and by an Interpol red notice at the request of Japan, Carlos Ghosn has been forced to stay in Lebanon since he fled the Japanese archipelago in December 2019, hidden in a box. audio equipment.