He had been demanding these rights for more than five years.
Carlos Ghosn, former Renault boss caught and arrested for alleged financial embezzlement before fleeing to Lebanon, did not win his case.
According to a decision by the Court of Cassation cited by AFP this Tuesday, he will not be entitled to his “cap pension” of 775,000 euros.
The Renault board of directors had already, in 2019, refused to pay this remuneration.
“The conditions of departure of Mr. Carlos Ghosn do not correspond to either of the two cases of opening of this regime and no pension can be paid to him in this respect,” he wrote at the time.
Retirement or resignation?
After his arrest in Japan in November 2018, and his incredible flight to Lebanon, Carlos Ghosn went to court to claim his rights to a “hat retirement”.
These are “additional” pensions financed solely by the company, with a gross amount of 774,774 euros per year.
Read also Lawsuit against Nissan: Carlos Ghosn assures that he is not seeking “revenge” and demands 1 billion euros
The businessman believed that he had been forced to “end his mandates” at Renault because of his arrest.
However, for the company, this departure was a resignation, and not a retirement, which therefore canceled his rights to this retirement.
Appeal to the Court of Cassation
Carlos Ghosn had already lost before the Nanterre commercial court, then on appeal in Paris in December 2021 before deciding to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
In a decision rendered on December 20, 2023, the high court confirmed the previous decisions.
VIDEO.
“I decided on all the details”: Carlos Ghosn tells the story of his escape from Japan
The Court states that "the beneficiary of a supplementary pension with defined benefits with random rights has no acquired right to receive this supplementary pension as long as his retirement pension rights have not been liquidated and he does not has not been established that he meets the condition of completing his career within the company.
Thus, failing to prove that he was retiring at the time of his flight, Carlos Ghosn will not receive this “surcharge”.
Financial embezzlement
Carlos Ghosn's turmoil began in 2018. He was arrested in November in Japan where he was to be tried for alleged financial embezzlement when he was head of the Renault-Nissan group.
From Beirut, Carlos Ghosn denounces a “plot” hatched by Nissan with the support of the Japanese government.
The aim of his alleged detractors was, according to him, to bring him down and strengthen their union with Renault at his expense.
Visé par trois mandats d’arrêt
L’homme d’affaires franco-libano-brésilien est visé par trois mandats d’arrêt : un premier au Japon pour malversations financières ainsi qu’un deuxième à Nanterre pour abus de biens sociaux et blanchiment en bande organisée, en lien avec le distributeur omanais Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
Un troisième mandat a été émis à Paris en juillet 2023 pour corruption et abus de biens sociaux ? Les juges d’instruction le soupçonnent d’avoir fait verser - via une filiale de Renault - 900 000 euros à l’avocate et femme politique Rachida Dati, depuis devenue ministre de la Culture. Le but était de masquer une activité de lobbying au Parlement européen alors qu’elle y était députée.