Thomson Reuters
Carlos Ghosn attends the company's annual shareholder meeting in Paris
- Carlos Ghosn's fall from grace has been dramatic and new allegations means he will likely spend Christmas behind bars.
- The auto executive has spent a month in jail following his initial arrest in Tokyo and is now suspected of passing personal losses onto Nissan.
- Ghosn was rearrested on Friday diminishing his chances of making bail as prosecutors make new allegations.
Automotive executive Carlos Ghosn looks set to spend Christmas behind bars after he was rearrested in Tokyo on suspicion of passing personal losses onto Nissan scuppering his chances of making bail.
The former Nissan and Mitsubishi CEO has been imprisoned following his initial arrest on November 19 on a variety of allegations including under representing his salary and using company assets for personal benefit.
In the latest twist in the ongoing saga, prosecutors alleged that Ghosn had temporarily forced Nissan to take over a personal derivative contract that was sitting on 1.85 billion yen ($16.6 million) in losses at the time at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.
According to a statement, Ghosn later took the contract back onto his personal books and received help from an unidentified person in backing up his credit to the bank on the other side of the deal. Similarly, between 2009 and 2012, Ghosn is alleged to have had a Nissan subsidiary transfer a total of $14.7 million into an account controlled by that person.
The Brazil-born executive, 64, has now spent a month in prison and his hopes to make bail were improved Thursday after a court rejected a request by the prosecution to extend his detention. However, Friday's re-arrest diminished the chances of a swift exit from his current conditions.
Ghosn has not yet responded to the latest allegation - but he has consistently denied all previous accusations made against him.
If found guilty of the financial misconduct charges he could face up to 10 years in prison as well as a fine of up to $6.2 million, according to Japanese regulators.
The former head of one of the largest motoring alliances in the world, Ghosn's fall from grace has been dramatic with his roles at Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors having been removed. He remains chairman of French automaker Renault, however, with the company opting to replace him with a temporary executive during the proceedings.