PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2019) � French car manufacturer Renault will sue its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, who is already facing charges of financial misconduct, based on the results of an audit of a joint Renault-Nissan subsidiary, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday, adding that the French state, which owns shares in Renault, would provide all necessary information to the court.
Renault said on Tuesday that the audit revealed 11 million Euros ($12.4 million) worth of suspicious expenses by the former executive. According to the results of the audit, the money could have been spent by Ghosn on gifts to non-profit organizations and air travel, among other things.
"The state will hand over all this information [regarding the audit] to the judiciary, there will be a lawsuit," the minister told the BFMTV broadcaster in an interview.�
The minister noted that the state was obligated to protect Renault's interests in this case and confirmed that it would be the automaker itself that would file the suit.�
"When a state is a shareholder at a company like Renault, [where it] has 15 percent [of shares], its role is to make sure that [the company's] governance works well," Le Maire added.
Ghosn, who used to be the chairman of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance and of all three companies individually, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 along with his right hand, Greg Kelly, as part of an investigation into the former executives' presumed failure to properly report around $44 million worth of income.
Ghosn has since been released on bail, rearrested in April in the wake of new charges related to his alleged misuse of Nissan funds and released on bail again on April 25.
