EXCLUSIVE: Ghosn May Have Tried to Cover Up “Oman-Route” Scheme

April 5, 2019

Tokyo--Carlos Ghosn may have used several bank accounts in the alleged improper transfers of Nissan Motor Co. <7201> funds via Oman, informed sources told Jiji Press Friday.

The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office believes that the use of the different bank accounts was aimed at covering up Ghosn's involvement in the "Oman-route" fund flows, according to the sources.

Ghosn has repeatedly claimed that he is innocent.

The former Nissan chairman, while on bail, was arrested again on Thursday on additional aggravated breach of trust charges, for allegedly inflicting losses on Nissan through the outflows of company funds totaling 5 million dollars between December 2015 and July 2018.

Nissan funds were first sent from a Middle Eastern subsidiary to a Nissan distributor in Oman, and then transferred to a dummy company effectively owned by Ghosn in Lebanon through several different bank accounts, the sources said.

Some of the funds are said to have been used for the purchase of a cabin cruiser for his family, as well as for investment in a company set up by his first son in the United States.

Ghosn may have borrowed the name of an acquaintance to prevent his name from appearing on the list of shareholders of the Lebanese dummy company, the sources said.

Including the funds mentioned in the charges, Ghosn is believed to have transferred 32 million dollars from Nissan's so-called CEO reserves to the Oman distributor since 2012.

Ghosn had 30 million dollars of debt to repay to the Oman distributor's founder, the sources said. Jiji Press