Carlos Ghosn Predicts Nissan To Go Bankrupt By 2021-2022 Lawyer

Fugitive former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has predicted the multinational automobile manufacturer to go bankrupt in 2-3 years, Nobuo Gohara, an attorney from his legal team, said on Wednesday

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2020) Fugitive former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has predicted the multinational automobile manufacturer to go bankrupt in 2-3 years, Nobuo Gohara, an attorney from his legal team, said on Wednesday.

Ghosn had been leading Nissan since 2001 before getting fired in 2018 over his arrest in Japan for alleged financial wrongdoing. Since April 2019, he was held on house arrest in Tokyo under close surveillance, awaiting trial, but somehow managed to escape from the country in late December.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Gohara said that Ghosn had told him in a conversation last year that "Nissan would go bankrupt within two to three years," not providing any specific grounding to his prediction, however.

According to the lawyer, Ghosn's escape from Japan was per se a crime. But he also said that the businessman fled fearing that the trial could protract for years amid lacking evidence and, given that in Japan courts normally collaborate with prosecutors, there was a 99 percent probability that he would end up convicted.

"All Nissan had to do is to consult with lawyers and the board of directors to introduce some adjustments to the pay," Gohara said.

Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo in November 2018 over alleged falsification of financial statements through concealing an approximate $71 million in income and illegal use of about $21 million worth of company assets to compensate for his personal loss from a failed investment.

He was first released on bail and then put under house arrest to wait for trial later this year. In late December, Ghosn announced post factum that he had arrived in Lebanon. It remains unknown how he sidestepped the Japanese law enforcement and crossed international borders without any of his Brazilian, French and Lebanese passports.

Upon Tokyo's request, the Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Ghosn in early January, following which a court in Lebanon ruled to temporarily ban the businessman from leaving the country.