Carlos Ghosn sues Nissan for $1bn in Lebanon

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has filed a lawsuit in Lebanon against the Japanese automaker Nissan, demanding more than $1 billion in compensation following his dismissal. (AFP/File)

• Businessman Ghosn is being pursued by Japan and France on corruption charges
• Ghosn has accused them of “conspiring to illegally oust him from the company by fabricating criminal charges, falsifying evidence, and defaming, insulting, and libeling him”

BEIRUT: Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has filed a lawsuit in Lebanon against the Japanese automaker Nissan, demanding more than $1 billion in compensation following his dismissal.
Businessman Ghosn is being pursued by Japan and France on corruption charges. He fled to Lebanon after departing Japan at the end of 2019, and lodged a complaint with the Lebanese judiciary two weeks ago against Nissan and 12 of its employees, according to a judicial source.
Ghosn has accused them of “conspiring to illegally oust him from the company by fabricating criminal charges, falsifying evidence, and defaming, insulting, and libeling him,” and has demanded “a financial compensation exceeding $1 billion,” the source told Arab News.
“Ghosn’s lawsuit includes the addresses of the defendants. Therefore, the Lebanese judiciary will notify them through diplomatic channels or by mail. A session has been scheduled for the defendants on Sept. 18 at the Palace of Justice in Beirut,” the source added, stressing that the notification process “has not been completed yet.”
The Lebanese judiciary may seek legal assistance from Japan, said the source.
Ghosn, 69, was dismissed by Nissan in 2018. He had been a pioneer during a career of managing global automotive companies but was charged by Japanese authorities with tax evasion, breach of trust, and embezzlement of company funds, and was subsequently arrested.
Ghosn denied the charges and escaped from house arrest by hiding in a box on a private jet in September 2019, traveling to Turkiye and then to Lebanon.
Ghosn had held the position of chairman and CEO of Nissan, as well as chairman of French automaker Renault, and Russian company AvtoVAZ. He also served as chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.
Lebanon refuses to extradite its citizens to any other country for trial, insisting on trying them on Lebanese soil.
This is the third Interpol Red Notice that Lebanon has received since Ghosn fled Japan in late 2019.
Judge Mirna Kallas interrogated Ghosn on Monday following a French arrest warrant for crimes attributed to him by the French judiciary related to “suspicious payments of up to 15 million euros and his misuse of the company’s assets, money laundering and corruption.”
The new memorandum charged Ghosn with possible links to former French Justice Minister Rachida Dati, who has been accused of having done consulting work for Ghosn for two years from 2010.
Ghosn has denied all the charges against him, according to the judicial source, and added that he “did not provide any financial amount to Dati and that all these charges are untrue.”
Ghosn has been released on bail and his three passports (French, Japanese, and Lebanese) have been confiscated by the Lebanese judiciary. He is prohibited from leaving the country.
A French judicial delegation visited Lebanon in April 2022 to seek assistance from the Lebanese judiciary, and interrogated Ghosn. Since then, neither Japan nor France has sent Ghosn’s files to the Lebanese authorities, which have requested them to try him there.