By Canadian Press

Detention of Nissan’s ex-chair Ghosn extended to April 22

Apr 12, 2019 | 7:18 AM

TOKYO — A Tokyo court on Friday approved the detention of Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn through April 22, allowing prosecutors to interrogate him daily on fresh allegations of financial misconduct.

Ghosn was arrested in November, released on bail last month but rearrested last week and is being held at Tokyo Detention Center. It is unclear when he might be released.

The new board of Nissan’s alliance with Renault SA of France and Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. met Friday in Paris for the first time to plot out the group’s future without Ghosn.

The alliance board is led by Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard. It also includes Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko. It will oversee shared projects such as developing batteries and more autonomous driving functions in their cars.

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Without the hard-driving, attention-getting Ghosn at the helm, some have expressed concern about the viability of the alliance. The scandal also remains a troubling distraction.

Ghosn has been charged with falsifying financial documents in underreporting his compensation, and with breach of trust in using Nissan money for dubious payments.

His latest arrest is over breach of trust suspicions that payments by a Nissan subsidiary to an Oman dealership went to a company effectively run by Ghosn. Formal charges involving those allegations have not been filed.

On Thursday, Ghosn’s wife Carole, who had left for France after Ghosn’s latest arrest, returned for questioning in a Tokyo court. Details have not been disclosed.

Ghosn, who led the Japanese automaker for two decades, says he is innocent of all charges. He says the compensation was never decided and the payments were for legitimate services.

Long detention and multiple arrests are routine in Japan, but rearresting a person who already cleared bail as Ghosn did before is unusual.

His lawyers, who have protested the detention as unfair, filed a new appeal with the court on the latest detention extension, but the court rejected it late Friday.

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This story has been corrected to show the meeting in Paris was held Friday.

Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press