Two magistrates and a French investigator arrived in Tokyo this Saturday to conduct interrogations in the investigation conducted in Nanterre targeting Carlos Ghosn, said a source familiar with the matter.
Targeted by an arrest warrant from the French courts, the ex-boss of the Renault Nissan alliance is suspected of having developed, between 2012 and 2017, a money laundering scheme in an organized gang and corruption with four officials of the Omani automobile distributor Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).
He disputes these accusations.
The two Nanterre magistrates and the investigator from the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF), who are interested in large financial flows considered suspicious, must remain until Friday at Tokyo to conduct interrogations there, confirmed the Nanterre prosecution.
The objective is to know if the people questioned were "informed" of these flows, or even had "validated" them, specified the prosecution.
30 million euros
The magistrates suspect the former CEO of the Alliance of having received more than 30 million euros from SBA.
The Omani distributor would have paid him 25 million euros in 2009, in the form of a "loan" granted to Rita Ghosn, his wife at the time and would have paid him 7.5 million dollars, for missions of advice.
A refugee in Lebanon since his incredible flight from Japan in 2020, Carlos Ghosn, who also has Lebanese nationality, is protected by the law of the country of Cedars, which does not extradite its nationals.
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But at the end of last April, an arrest warrant was issued against him by an investigating judge in Nanterre - having taken over the Japanese investigation - for "misuse of corporate assets", "breach of trust", "money laundering organized” and “passive corruption” from 2012 to 2017. The businessman, who also has French nationality, therefore risks being tried in France, whether he is present or not.