Carlos Ghosn says Nissan, Renault relationship strained, mulling ‘mini alliance’
Michael Brady Eric Walz
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Nissan and Renault are scaling back their alliance because the two organizations don’t trust each other, former Nissan Chair and CEO Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday during a videoconference with reporters hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

Ghosn said the alliance, which dates back to 1999, had benefited Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi before his arrest in 2018. But there was “very little action” to revamp the partnership until recently, despite “big words” from the companies’ leaders.

“After my arrest, the alliance was shattered [because] trust was lost, and once trust is lost, there is nothing you can do,” Ghosn said. "With the latest agreement, they're trying to go for a mini alliance with a very reduced scope of cooperation."

It’s the beginning of the end of the Nissan-Renault alliance, he said. “What you’re going to see is [reduced cooperation] between two companies that, at the first opportunity, are gonna be unbundling everything.”

In November 2018, the former CEO was arrested in Japan and charged with embezzling $140 million before being released on bail in March 2019. He fled the country in December 2019 while awaiting trial under house arrest and flew to Lebanon to escape what he called a “rigged justice system.”

In September 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission settled fraud charges against Nissan, Ghosn and former director Greg Kelly related to false financial disclosures that omitted the $140 million sum to be paid to Ghosn in retirement.

Reuters reported in June that Ghosn filed a $1 billion lawsuit in Lebanon against Nissan, along with 12 individuals and two other firms, alleging defamation, slander, libel and the fabrication of material evidence.

“I want to make sure all the criminals and plotters cannot sleep quietly in their beds,” Ghosn said after stating that he was not seeking “revenge.”

He also commented on the tumultuous ouster of former Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta last month, who reportedly disagreed with Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida over the automaker’s effort to reboot its partnership with Renault.

“This soap opera of the defenestration of Gupta has been frankly laughable,” Ghosn said, calling Nissan’s recent corporate governance and transparency efforts “a story for idiots.”