Nissan has denied recent media reports that suggested a conspiracy within the company to oust former chairman Carlos Ghosn.
The report in question quoted leaked emails from 2018, when Ghosn pledged to strengthen the alliance between Nissan and Renault, coming from senior managers at the Japanese carmaker, revealing a campaign to “neutralize [Ghosn’s] initiatives before it’s too late.”
“I know that in books and the media there has been talk about a conspiracy but there are no facts whatsoever to support this,” Motoo Nagai, chairman of Nissan’s auditing committee, told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting, according to Reuters.
Read More: Leaked Nissan Emails Indicate Carlos Ghosn May Have Been Set Up
Nagai added that Nissan’s internal investigation into Ghosn was conducted both internally and by outside law firms.
Ghosn was arrested at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on November 18, 2018, accused of under-reporting his income among others. The day before Ghosn’s arrest, Hari Nada, Nissan’s current senior vice president and former Ghosn aide, reportedly called for the terminations of the agreement governing the alliance and the restoration of Nissan’s right to buy shares in Renault to then-chief executive Hiroto Saikawa.
Nissan’s shareholders pressed Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s CEO, to reveal how he plans to restore trust in the company following the Ghosn scandal and revive sales in key markets like the United States and China.
Uchida repeated that he would stick to his promise to step down if his turnaround plan for Nissan, which includes cutting its model range down by about a fifth and reducing production capacity, fails. Nissan has also recently announced the closure of its factories in Spain and Indonesia as part of the company’s new strategy.
