Posted in: 22/04/2022 – 08:53
The French judiciary has issued an international arrest warrant for former auto magnate Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested in Japan at the end of 2018, and fled in dramatic circumstances, prosecutors told AFP on Friday, April 22, 2022.
The memo relates to more than 15 million euros in suspicious payments between the Renault-Nissan alliance headed by Ghosn and an Omani company, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, as prosecutors in the Paris suburb of Nanterre explained to AFP.
Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian nationalities and was to be tried in Tokyo for embezzlement, has been living in Beirut since his escape from Japan at the end of 2019. If the arrest warrant is implemented, Carlos Ghosn will appear before an investigative judge in Nanterre, in the Paris region, who will inform him of the indictment.
The investigating judge in Nanterre in charge of the case issued five international arrest warrants targeting, in addition to Carlos Ghosn, “the current owners or former directors of the Suhail Bahwan Automobile Company of Oman,” the prosecutors explained.
“This is not an arrest warrant issued by France, but (…) by the public prosecutor in Nanterre,” Jean Tamale of the law firm King & Spalding, who is one of Ghosn’s lawyers, told AFP.
He added, “This note is surprising because the investigating judge and the public prosecutor in Nanterre know very well that Carlos Ghosn, who has always cooperated with the judiciary, is subject to a judicial ban from leaving Lebanese territory.”