Carlos Ghosn is now targeted by an international arrest warrant issued by French justice. The 67-year-old former businessman, who has Lebanese, French and Brazilian nationalities, has been forced to stay in Lebanon since his incredible flight from Japan in December 2019.
The former car tycoon is targeted in France by two legal proceedings. The first procedure concerns Paris, for the consulting services concluded by RNBV, a Dutch subsidiary embodying the Renault-Nissan alliance, with the former French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer.
The second procedure concerns alleged embezzlement in Nanterre. In this case, the investigators are interested in nearly 15 million euros in payments considered suspicious between RNBV and the distributor of the French car manufacturer in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
Five arrest warrants
The Nanterre investigating judge in charge of the investigation has issued five international arrest warrants in total: they target, in addition to Carlos Ghosn, “the current owners or former managers of the Omani company SBA”, specified the prosecution. . If the arrest warrant is executed, Carlos Ghosn will be directly presented to a Nanterre investigating judge who will notify him of his indictment.
“This is not an arrest warrant issued by France but by the Nanterre court during an ongoing investigation, more precisely by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office”, reacted one of Carlos’ lawyers. Ghosn, Jean Tamalet, of King and Spalding. “This mandate is very surprising because the investigating judge and the Nanterre prosecutor know perfectly well that Carlos Ghosn, who has always cooperated with justice, is subject to a judicial ban on leaving Lebanese territory”, added Mr. Tamalet.
During their investigations, the magistrates of Nanterre had already traveled twice to Beirut. Last February, they interviewed two witnesses there. In the previous June, they had proceeded, with magistrates from Paris, to the free hearing of Mr. Ghosn for five days, for the investigations targeting him in Nanterre and Paris. Contacted, Renault’s lawyer, a civil party in the proceedings, could not be reached on Friday morning.
In an exclusive interview with Parisian in February, the former leader had decided to “tell his story” to “restore” his image. “We tried so hard to manipulate public opinion around what I did and what I am, that I think it is important that I restore my image,” he said during this meeting in Beirut. .