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What's next for corporate kingpin turned fugitive Carlos Ghosn as the former Nissan boss prepares to speak

A press conference is scheduled in the wake of his extraordinary flight from Japan where he was on bail amid allegations of financial misconduct 

James Moore
Chief Business Commentator
Monday 06 January 2020 01:14 GMT
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From corporate kingpin to international fugitive: Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn
From corporate kingpin to international fugitive: Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn (AP)

If everything goes to plan, and that’s a big if, we should hear from fugitive former car boss Carlos Ghosn this week.

A press conference is promised and if it goes ahead, the international press corps will resemble a gang of Taylor Swift fans when tour tickets go on sale in the scramble for front row seats.

Will the former kingpin of the Nissan/Renault/Mitsubishi alliance say anything of substance?

I rather doubt it. I suspect what we will get is an exercise in self justification. But it scarcely matters. It’s all about the show, and Ghosn has put on a hell of a show. A real life Hollywood movie.

The story of his meticulously planned flight from Japan, where he was on bail under supposedly strict conditions over allegations of financial misconduct, with the aid of a private security company and private jet is scarcely credible.

The fall out from it is already spreading, with an investigation now underway in Istanbul, where the jet first landed en route to Lebanon, as well as Japan.

In addition to his Lebanese passport he also holds Brazilian and French nationalities.

Whether he stays in the Middle East is open to question. Interpol has issued a red notice. While that will be ignored, and Ghosn has powerful friends in Lebanon, the politics are unstable, the economy is teetering and he visited Israel through the course of his work. The country is technically in a state of war with its neighbour and citizens are banning from interacting with it as a result.

Maybe there’ll be another private jet, another flight, perhaps landing in France, which does not extradite its own citizens.

In the midst of all this two narratives have grown up.

One is Ghosn as corporate hero, the man who become known as “le cost killer” at Renault, before landing at Nissan in the wake of the two companies’ alliance. There he was the architect of an unlikely revival, something that was once seen as all but impossible.

He was feted, even had a manga strip devoted to him, a much bigger compliment than it looks to Western eyes given the art form’s cultural power in Japan.

The charges of financial misconduct he faced, relating to his alleged misuse of company assets and the alleged misreporting of his astronomical salary, are characterised as political in this story, an attempt by the Japanese corporate establishment to bring down a foreigner who got too big for his boots.

Those who subscribe to it often like to point out that more serious misconduct by executives is regularly overlooked in the country. They have further drawn attention to its “hostage justice” system, with suspects spending long periods detained under harsh conditions (120 days in Ghosn’s case) where they are worn down by constant interrogation in an attempt to secure the confessions its powerful prosecutors rely upon.

The other holds that Ghosn was a man who blurred the lines between himself and the company in a manner that is too often seen among powerful executives, and that he broke the law through so doing. Regardless of the political backdrop, law breaking is law breaking and should be pursued. A message needs to be sent to the world’s lesser Ghosns, of whom there are many.

It may very well be that there is truth in both. But there’s not much in the way of middle ground.

Ghosn’s case is one of those in which people tend to pick a side and stick to it, regardless of the facts, which are, anyway, obscured by thicker fog than you’ll find in a San Francisco summer.

That fog won’t be blown away in any courtroom. Writers and journalists will line up to try. There are film rights to be sold. The story already reads like the fevered dreams of a script writer and there are still chapters yet to be written.

So sit back, grab the popcorn, and enjoy the show.

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