Ghosn's son denies receiving redirected Nissan money

NEW YORK -- The son of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, on Tuesday denied he has received money paid by the automaker to an Omani distributor and allegedly redirected by his father to him and his family.

In an email response to a Kyodo News query, Anthony Ghosn, who is CEO of U.S. investment firm Shogun, said he "has not received any money from good faith."

He was referring to a firm called Good Faith Investments, via which some of the funds in question were allegedly transferred to a company represented by Ghosn's wife.

A senior official of the Omani distributor, an acquaintance of Carlos Ghosn's, was listed as chief of the investment company, which was effectively owned by Ghosn.

Carlos Ghosn was rearrested last Thursday over a new allegation that misuse of Nissan funds led the automaker to sustain a $5 million loss, less than a month after his release on bail in Tokyo.

Prosecutors say Ghosn is facing a claim that he caused the loss by having Nissan Middle East F.Z.E., its United Arab Emirates subsidiary, pay the distributor $15 million between December 2015 and July 2018, with a third of this transferred to a savings account effectively controlled by him.

Based on analysis of internal Nissan documents, including emails, prosecutors found an amount of money -- identical to that transferred to GFI -- was channeled to companies represented by Ghosn's wife and son, sources said.

Part of the money was forwarded to Carole Ghosn's company Beauty Yacht, which purchased a luxury yacht worth 1.6 billion yen. The yacht, named "Shachou" -- "President" in Japanese -- is suspected of having been used by the family.

Funds were also moved to Shogun. Japanese prosecutors have requested help with the investigation from the United States and have sent a team there.

Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190410/p2g/00m/0na/052000c