said Thursday that former Chairman Carlos Ghosn used company funds for private events abroad, including a party held at the Palace of Versailles and paying for guests to attend the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.
The joint venture in the Netherlands, Renault-Nissan B.V., also paid for Ghosn's dinners at the Marmottan Museum in Paris, gifts purchased at luxury jewelry store Cartier and attorney fees for a law firm in Lebanon, a country where Nissan conducted little business, Nissan said. Nissan's own probe, meanwhile, has found that Zi-A Capital B.V., its wholly owned subsidiary in the Netherlands, purchased residences in Rio de Janeiro and Beirut for Ghosn and covered renovation costs, with outlays totaling over $22 million.
Nissan said it has decided that its representative executive officers cannot serve concurrently as executives or employees of Renault, partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp., their subsidiaries or affiliates. "None of these officers are involved in daily operations or the exercise of business judgment or attend management meetings," Nissan said in its Improvement Measures Status Report.