The ex-wife of Nissan’s chairman Carlos Ghosn has declared ‘all narcissists lie and abuse behind closed doors’ after he was arrested for alleged financial misconduct.
Rita Ghosn took to social media a day after her former husband, 64, was accused by Japanese prosecutors of under-reporting his income and misusing company funds.
‘All narcissists are hypocrites,’ she wrote, according to Forbes. ‘They pretend to have morals and values that they really don’t possess.
‘Behind closed doors, they lie, insult, criticize, disrespect and abuse. They can do and say whatever they want, but how dare you say anything back to them or criticize them. They have a whole set of rules for others, but follow none of their own rules, and practice nothing of what they preach.’
Her comments come as Nissan and Mitsubishi shares plunged with the automakers preparing to oust Ghosn. Details began to emerge about the allegations against Brazil-born Ghosn including claims that ‘huge sums’ were spent on homes for him in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam.
The ex-wife of Nissan’s chairman Carlos Ghosn has declared ‘all narcissists lie and abuse behind closed doors’ after he was arrested for alleged financial misconduct. They are pictured together in Cannes in 2016 (left) and 2017 (right)
Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa (pictured) said a months-long investigation prompted by a whistleblower had uncovered years of financial wrongdoing, including under-reporting of Ghosn’s salary and misuse of company assets
Nissan and Mitsubishi shares have plunged as the automakers prepares to oust chairman Carlos Ghosn a day after he was arrested for alleged financial misconduct.
His legacy appeared in danger of total collapse, with his own handpicked successor as Nissan CEO accusing Ghosn of accruing too much power, in what he called the ‘dark side’ of his leadership.
Japanese media reported this morning that Nissan had provided Ghosn with houses in four countries ‘without any legitimate business reason’ in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam.
At the close of Tokyo trade, Nissan was down 5.45 per cent while Mitsubishi had fallen 6.84 percent.
The spectacular fall of the 64-year-old executive, which Japan’s top government spokesman called ‘truly regrettable,’ also raised questions about the future of the sometimes fractious alliance he led of Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault.
Nissan and Mitsubishi have said they will propose his removal as chairman, with Renault’s board also meeting to discuss his fate.
The automakers and Japanese government officials said they would work to protect the alliance.
‘Keeping a stable relationship (among the three companies) is important,’ industry minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters.
On Tuesday there were still many unanswered questions about the allegations against a man long credited with an almost magical ability to turn around ailing auto companies.
Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa said a months-long investigation prompted by a whistleblower had uncovered years of financial wrongdoing, including under-reporting of Ghosn’s salary and misuse of company assets.
Prosecutors said they were holding him as they probed allegations he had under-reported his income by around five billion yen (£34million) over five years.
Details began to emerge about the allegations against Brazil-born Ghosn including claims that ‘huge sums’ were spent on homes for him in four countries
Public broadcaster NHK reported Nissan has provided Ghosn with houses in four countries ‘without any legitimate business reason,’ and that Nissan paid ‘huge sums’ for the homes in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, Paris and Amsterdam.
It also reported that some compensation due to other executives ended up going to Ghosn, without specifying how the process had worked.
At the close of Tokyo trade, Nissan was down 5.45 per cent while Mitsubishi had fallen 6.84 percent.
The shock of Ghosn’s arrest was compounded by the harsh language levelled against him by Saikawa, who in a news conference accused the titan of accruing too much power.
‘Too much authority was given to one person in terms of governance,’ he told reporters at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama on Monday. ‘I have to say that this is a dark side of the Ghosn era which lasted for a long time.’
It was an almost unthinkable turn of events for Ghosn, 64, who had earned a virtually unparallelled reputation, particularly in Japan, for his role in resurrecting Nissan.
Ghosn has dominated the country’s corporate landscape, and is a well-known figure among the Japanese public, who know him as ‘Mr Fix It’, partly through a popular manga comic of his life story.
But the tables had turned Tuesday, with the Yomiuri Shimbun describing executives at Nissan slamming Ghosn as ‘greedy’.
Carlos Ghosn: The cost cutter with a big price tag
In his 40 years in the auto industry, the praise Carlos Ghosn has won for turning around businesses has regularly been matched by criticism over the amount he has been paid to do it.
In the latest furore over his finances, Japan’s Nissan Motor Co Ltd said on Monday it planned to oust Ghosn as chairman after alleging he had made personal use of company assets, among other acts of suspected misconduct.
The scandal comes just five months after the 64-year-old head of the Renault-Nissan alliance narrowly won a shareholder vote at Renault over his 7.4 million euro ($8.5 million) pay package for 2017, after losing a 2016 vote.
In his 40 years in the auto industry, the praise Carlos Ghosn (pictured) has won for turning around businesses has regularly been matched by criticism over the amount he has been paid to do it
Brazilian-born, of Lebanese descent and a French citizen, Ghosn began his career in 1978 at tyremaker Michelin, before moving to Renault in 1996, where he oversaw a turnaround at the French automaker that won him the nickname ‘Le Cost Killer.’
After Renault sealed an alliance with Nissan in 1999, Ghosn used similar methods to revive the ailing Japanese brand, leading to ‘business superstar’ status in Japan, blanket media coverage and even a manga comic book on his life.
As auto markets in western Europe and Japan struggled, Ghosn championed a cheap car for the masses in emerging markets and embraced the electric vehicle before many others.
He also never made it a secret that he believed there were too many carmakers in the world and consolidation would continue – in 2016 he added Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp to the alliance.
But in recent months, attention has increasingly turned to how the complex web of cross-shareholdings between the alliance partners might be simplified to ensure it can thrive following the eventual departure of its main architect.
In March, sources close to the matter told Reuters the alliance partners were discussing plans for a closer tie-up in which Nissan would acquire the bulk of the French state’s 15 percent stake in Renault.
With Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reporting on Monday that Ghosn had been arrested by Tokyo prosecutors on suspicion of under-reporting his salary, the alliance’s plans for the future just got more pressing.
‘He says the right things, but in the end it’s all about money,’ the daily quoted senior employees as saying.
It was unclear how long Ghosn could be held, or even when prosecutors would officially announce the charges against him.
Local media reported prosecutors had negotiated a plea bargain for only the second time since Japanese law changed this year that would allow Nissan officials who are cooperating to receive lesser charges or lighter penalties.
Nissan said the ongoing investigation had uncovered years of misconduct by Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly but refused to be drawn on whether other people were involved, saying only: ‘These two gentlemen are the masterminds, that is definite.’
The news sparked concern in France, where the state owns a 15 percent stake in Renault. President Emmanuel Macron said Paris would be ‘extremely vigilant’ about the stability of the firm and its three-way tie-up.
Despite his international renown and rock-star status, particularly in Japan, where he was a rare foreign-born executive, Ghosn was not without detractors.
He earned admiration but also anger for his ruthless restructuring at firms like Nissan, and was nicknamed ‘Le Cost Cutter’ in France.
And his pay packet was regularly the subject of criticism, including at Renault, where it sparked a spat with shareholders.