New misconduct allegations brought by Japanese prosecutors against ousted Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn concerns the use of company funds to pay a Saudi businessman who is believed to have assisted him out of financial difficulties, two company sources with knowledge of the matter satated.
Prosecutors arrested Ghosn for a third time on Friday, alleging him of aggravated breach of trust in moving personal investment losses to the automaker.
The prosecutors’ statement read they believe that around October 2008, Ghosn was attempting to deal with losses on paper of 1.85 billion yen ($16.6 million) took place on a swap contract he had with a bank which it did not name.
A person helped arrange a letter of credit for Ghosn and a company operated by the person later received $14.7 million in Nissan funds in four installments between 2009 and 2012, the statement included, adding that the payments were made in Ghosn’s and the person’s interests.
“By doing so, (Ghosn) behaved in a way that breached trust, and inflicted damage on the property of Nissan,” the statement reads. The statement also stated Ghosn had previously sought to have Nissan shoulder the appraisal losses directly.
According to the Nissan sources who have information of the company’s investigation into its former chief, the person who assisted Ghosn is Khaled Al-Juffali, vice chairman of Saudi Arabia’s one of the largest conglomerates, E. A. Juffali and Brothers, and a part of the board at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.
He is also majority owner of a company named Al-Dahana which controls half of a regional joint venture called Nissan Gulf with the other half held by a entirely owned unit of Nissan Motor.
Sheikh Khaled Juffali has no remark on this subject, according to Reuters citing an emailed statement from E. A. Juffali and Brothers.
