Carlos Ghosn, the star auto executive credited with rescuing both Renault and Nissan, left a drab Tokyo detention center Wednesday after more than three months…
Carlos Ghosn, the star auto executive credited with rescuing both Renault and Nissan, left a drab Tokyo detention center Wednesday after more than three months in custody, his identify obscured by a surgical mask, hat and construction worker’s outfit.
The jet-setting turnaround wizard was pursued by TV news helicopters as he traveled in a tiny Suzuki van through Tokyo streets after his release on 1 billion yen (nearly $9 million) bail – a peculiar and humbling episode in a journey that has cast light on aspects of Japanese corporate life and its justice system that set the country apart.
Brazilian-born and raised in Lebanon, Ghosn had been held since his arrest on Nov. 19 shortly after he arrived at a Tokyo airport aboard a private jet. He has stoutly maintained his innocence and vowed to fight charges he falsified financial reports and committed breach of trust.
No date has been set for his trial, which will pit the proud, cosmopolitan European and his star legal team against prosecutors whose determination to prove their case was evident in their crusade to keep Ghosn isolated in the detention center. Only after he agreed to install a surveillance camera at his door and not use the internet, and of course not flee Japan, was he able to win release on bail, on his third attempt.
The timing of Ghosn’s release allows him to spend his 65th birthday, on Saturday, with family.
Ghosn proved his mettle at tire company Michelin before he was recruited to help restore profitability at Renault AG, which is 15 percent owned by the French government. Dispatched by Renault in 1999 to help turn around its alliance partner Nissan, he delivered. Ghosn bet early on that emissions crackdowns would eventually bring an end to the era of gasoline and diesel engines, so he has championed bringing electric and autonomous cars to the masses, fighting resistance within both companies.
