Japanese Prosecutors Get Arrest Warrant Against Carole Ghosn
Carlos Ghosn’s wife Carole, who is now in Lebanon with Ghosn, could now be arrested if she returns to Japan.
(Bloomberg) -- Japanese prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant for Carole Ghosn, the wife of Carlos Ghosn, the latest move by the country to contain the fallout from the former auto executive’s daring escape from trial a week ago.
Prosecutors issued a statement announcing the warrant on Tuesday. The action means Carole, who is now in Lebanon with Ghosn, could be arrested if she returns to Japan. Authorities said they obtained the warrant against Ghosn’s wife for giving false testimony in court last April.
Ghosn had been barred from meeting his wife while he was on bail in Japan, because authorities believed she had been aiding him in covering up for his crimes. That was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” in his decision to flee, Ghosn told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Ghosn has said his wife and other family members played no role in his escape to Lebanon, after reports began to appear suggesting that Carole or other members of his family had helped plan his escape — which, if accurate, would expose them to criminal charges in Japan or elsewhere. On Jan. 2, Ghosn said in a statement that “I alone arranged for my departure.” His family, he said, “had no role whatsoever.”
Carole, who’d departed Japan in a hurry after her husband was taken into custody on a fourth charge in early April, has spent much of the last year lobbying tirelessly on his behalf — a campaign that was taking an obvious toll. “They’ve destroyed our lives, we are scarred forever,” she said of Ghosn’s accusers in a November interview with Bloomberg Television. “It’s been the hardest year of my life.”
Ghosn’s family views the arrest warrant as an effort to intimidate him before his press conference in Beirut on Wednesday, according to a person close to the family who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. Carole was truthful in her testimony, the person said. Ghosn was re-arrested in Japan in early April just after announcing plans to speak to journalists there.
The Ghosns were together when he was arrested last April for the fourth time, during an early morning raid into their apartment. Carole has said that her privacy was invaded in the process, with a female prosecutor waiting for her as she exited the shower. Her Lebanese passport and mobile phones were confiscated by the authorities, according to Ghosn’s lawyers.
She left Japan with her U.S. passport, though came back for questioning the same month. Carole is also entangled in the allegations: in one breach of trust charge, Ghosn is accused of moving $5 million from Nissan to a dealership and then into companies including one headed by Carole and controlled by Ghosn. She said in the interview she “knew nothing” about her husband’s business dealings and “has been cleared.”
--With assistance from Matthew Campbell.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ichiro Suzuki in Tokyo at isuzuki@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, ;Yuji Okada at yokada6@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson, Jeff Sutherland
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