Renault on Wednesday stated France’s anti-corruption agency was conducting checks at the company, though a source at the automaker, which was rocked by the arrest of former executive Carlos Ghosn, stated the inspection was a routine matter.
French magazine Challenges was first to report the inspection though the report lacked further details.
There was no initial indication that the checks were related to judicial investigations into Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan alliance arrested in Japan in 2018 on financial misconduct charges which he rejects.
Ghosn fled to Lebanon from Japan in December, and the anti-corruption agency’s investigation started shortly before then, a source knowledgeable with the matter said.
The company has been discussed in the recent times, sometimes because of the scandal related to Ghosn, nonetheless, and the source did not rule out this had raised questions over management at Renault and prompted a closer look.
One of the anti-corruption agency’s remits is to make sure that French regulations from 2016 – known as the loi Sapin and intended at improving financial transparency and helping companies detect irregularities – are being implemented correctly.
Other businesses have also been subjected to routine checks into internal procedures, which can result in financial sanctions if serious defects are found.
“Renault confirms that it has been informed by (anti-corruption agency) AFA that it is conducting an inspection of the measures contained in ‘loi Sapin’,” a spokeswoman for the automaker said, adding that the company was cooperating with AFA to provide the necessary details and documents.
