Request for End of Ghosn’s Detention Rejected

January 9, 2019

Tokyo--Tokyo District Court decided Wednesday to turn down a lawyer request for ending the detention of former Nissan Motor Co. <7201> Chairman Carlos Ghosn over alleged aggravated breach of trust for transferring his private losses to the Japanese automaker.

Appearing in court on Tuesday, Ghosn, 64, claimed that he was "innocent of the accusations" against him.

At the hearing, the court said that Ghosn had been detained due to the possibility of him escaping abroad or destroying evidence.

Seeking to cancel his detention, Ghosn's defense side claimed at the hearing that it would be difficult for him to escape as he is a very well-known businessman and that there was no risk of him destroying evidence.

Ghosn is suspected of shifting financial derivatives contracts with appraisal losses of some 1.85 billion yen from his private asset management company to Nissan in 2008, according to investigations by the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.

The prosecutors also suspect that Ghosn sent 14.7 million dollars from Nissan to a Saudi businessman between 2009 and 2012 in return for his help in shifting back the derivatives contracts from Nissan to the asset management company.

Ghosn was served arrest warrants on Nov. 19 and Dec. 10 for allegedly understating his executive pay in Nissan's financial reports in violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

He was served another warrant on Dec. 21 on charges of aggravated breach of trust under the companies law.

The court decided on Dec. 31 to approve an extension of Ghosn's detention until Friday. Jiji Press