French magistrates traveling to Lebanon began Monday, May 32, 2021 to hear former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – Hussein Malla / AP / SIPA
Targeted by an Interpol arrest warrant and a refugee in Lebanon since his incredible flight from Japan in December 2019, Carlos Ghosn was heard this Monday for the first time by a delegation of French magistrates. Coming especially to Lebanon, they are currently questioning the former boss of Renault-Nissan in the investigations which target him in Nanterre and Paris, in particular for abuse of corporate assets.
The hearing takes place in a room of the Court of Cassation in Beirut. Accompanied by his lawyers, Carlos Ghosn arrived around 10 a.m. (07:00 GMT), said the source present in court. French magistrates and a Lebanese prosecutor attending the hearing arrived shortly before. On the menu of questions for this hearing scheduled over five days: two parties at the Palace of Versailles, financial flows with a commercial distributor in Oman, as well as consulting services when the former businessman was CEO of Renault-Nissan.
Heard as a witness
“The defense has already identified in the French files procedural irregularities that it considers serious”, denounce in a press release the three lawyers of Carlos Ghosn, Mes Carlos Abou-Jaoude, Jean-Yves Le Borgne and Jean Tamalet . “These anomalies, which weaken the judicial process, come from the unique methods of the Japanese investigation which remains the main source of French cases”.
The former automobile magnate, aged 67, “heard as a witness, has therefore no possibility of contesting the legality of the procedure”, they note. “Only the status of indictment”, which the three lawyers “call for, will allow him to denounce the legal defects affecting the case and to carry out hearings”, they believe.
By being indicted, Carlos Ghosn will be able to have access to the file, therefore to know the charges against him, but above all to request acts (second opinions, hearings of witnesses, confrontations, etc.). But this indictment will not be able to intervene as long as Carlos Ghosn is not on French soil.
Ghosn claims to have wanted to “escape injustice”
Arrested in November 2018 on the tarmac at Tokyo airport, he was free on bail after several months of detention, with a ban on leaving the archipelago pending trial on suspicion of financial embezzlement at Nissan when he foiled the surveillance of the Japanese authorities. Presumably hidden in a box of audio equipment on board a private jet, the Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian assured not to have “fled justice”, but to have wanted “to escape injustice”, denouncing a “conspiracy” of Japanese authorities against him.
This situation did not facilitate the work of the French investigators, who are also interested in the former automobile magnate, in particular for suspicions of abuse of corporate assets: in July 2020 an examining magistrate had asked hear it, but Carlos Ghosn had assured not to be able to leave Lebanon. The magistrates then decided to come to him to question him last January. A hearing finally postponed to the spring, due to health restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Several million euros in suspicious payments
It is therefore after these twists and turns that Carlos Ghosn will finally be heard within the framework of the investigations carried out in Nanterre and in Paris. This hearing carried out by investigating judges from Nanterre and Paris, in the presence of investigators from the Anti-Corruption Office (OCLCIFF), is to be held until Friday, as part of international criminal assistance. Lebanese magistrates will also be present.
In Nanterre, justice suspects Carlos Ghosn of having drawn personal benefit from a sponsorship agreement between Renault and the establishment which manages the Palace of Versailles, by organizing two evenings there. Investigators are also looking into several million euros in payments considered suspicious between RNBV, a Dutch subsidiary embodying the alliance of Renault and Nissan, and the distributor of the French car manufacturer in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
A new complaint
Last twist: a new complaint, filed on May 18. A Renault shareholder accuses Carlos Ghosn of having made the automobile group pay “substantial sums” to RNBV without “the knowledge of the shareholders”.
In Paris, following a complaint from the same shareholder, investigating judges have been interested since 2019 in consulting services concluded by RNBV with the former French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer. Rachida Dati and Alain Bauer, who deny any irregularity in the contracts, were placed under the status of assisted witness in this case, as was the former right-hand man at Renault of the Franco-Lebanese businessman, Mouna Sepehri.