Nissan’s board of directors has voted unanimously to remove Carlos Ghosn from the Chairman and Representative Director positions on today’s meeting, following his arrest on Monday over financial misconduct.
The company’s board also voted to oust Greg Kelly, who also got arrested on the same charges, from his position as Representative Director.
The board’s decision is effectively immediately, but the two executives are expected to keep their positions as regular directors for now. That’s because Nissan’s shareholders are the ones with the power to strip Ghosn and Kelly from that status, Automotive News reports.
“The board acknowledged the significance of the matter and confirmed that the long-standing Alliance partnership with Renault remains unchanged and that the mission is to minimize the potential impact and confusion on the day-to-day cooperation among the Alliance partners”, said Nissan in its statement.
Nissan’s decision came despite Renault urging the Japanese company to delay Ghosn’s removal, according to sources that spoke to Reuters. So far Renault has kept Ghosn in the position of the company’s Chairman and CEO, naming Thierry Bollore as interim CEO, while Mitsubishi announced its intention to follow Nissan’s footsteps and dismiss him at a board meeting next week.
Local media report that the Japanese authorities suspect that Ghosn didn’t report $44 (5 billion yen) million of income between 2010 and 2014, as well as hiding around $885,000 (100 million yen) that he received from a Netherlands-based subsidiary.
Nissan’s internal investigation also reportedly found that Ghosn’s elder sister received around $100,000 per year from the company for an advisory position that “did nothing for the company.”
