Carlos Ghosn is the subject of a new arrest warrant in France – 7/4/2023 – Market

A French investigating judge issued, in April, a new international arrest warrant against the Brazilian Carlos Ghosn, who lives in Lebanon, in an investigation into contracts approved by a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan company, which he directed, informed this Tuesday. fair (4), a source close to the case.

This arrest warrant was issued because the former executive director of the company, who also has French and Lebanese nationalities, failed to respond to a summons to appear before the court on May 19, 2022 on suspicion of corruption.

“Carlos Ghosn cannot leave Lebanon. The Lebanese authorities have prohibited him from leaving the country because of the Japanese accusation. He cannot, therefore, respond to summonses to appear in France,” Léon Del Forno and Martin Reynaud, told AFP. former CEO’s lawyers.

“Thus, this arrest warrant is nothing more, nothing less than an attempt by the magistrates to continue with their investigation, as they cannot indict Carlos Ghosn,” they explained.

To date, Ghosn has been the subject of three arrest warrants, two in France.

The first was issued by the Japanese court, which was supposed to try him for embezzlement. The 69-year-old former executive has been living in Lebanon since his cinematic escape from Japan in late 2019.

The second was issued by an investigating judge from Nanterre (near Paris) in April 2022, in a court case opened for abuse of corporate assets and money laundering organized with the distributor Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), from Oman.

And the third, issued now in Paris. This international arrest warrant may be the latest act in a judicial investigation opened on July 10, 2019 for corruption, bribery as an agent of an international public organization, influence peddling, abuse of corporate assets and embezzlement.

Once the investigations are closed, the French Public Ministry of Finance will have to present its application and the investigating judge will determine whether or not there will be a trial.

“Legal work”

In the current process, suspicions are about an amount of 900,000 euros paid to Rachida Dati, a lawyer and right-wing politician, by the RNBV, a Dutch subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, when Carlos Ghosn was the company’s CEO.

Dati, former Minister of Justice and now Mayor of the 7th Parisian district, received these amounts as fees as a lawyer between 2010 and 2012, while she was also a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019.

The amount paid is equivalent to R$ 2.4 million in 2012 values.

Justice wants to know if the values ​​correspond to specific activities or if they served to mask lobbying in the European Parliament, which is prohibited to any elected representative.

The former minister, who contests the accusations and considers the case time-barred, has been accused since July 2021 of corruption and influence peddling.

“The procedural entry of Carlos Ghosn in the file will allow bringing the truth to light,” Olivier Baratelli and Olivier Pardo, Dati’s lawyers, told AFP.

“A confrontation will be requested between Rachida Dati and Carlos Ghosn, which will make it possible to understand that this is a competent, rigorous lawyer who was hired to carry out specific legal work on behalf of Renault”, they added.

“Carlos Ghosn already answered all the questions on this subject two years ago, when the magistrates [encarregados] of the Paris and Nanterre cases went to interrogate him in Beirut, in 2021” in the context of international criminal cooperation, said the former executive’s defense.

Carlos Ghosn is suspected of having set up, between 2012 and 2017, a money laundering and corruption scheme with four managers of the Omani automobile distributor Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), over whom there is also an arrest warrant.

Ghosn disputes the allegations.