Apr 09 (Nikkei) - Carlos Ghosn has accused Nissan Motor executives of sacrificing the interests of the company by playing a "dirty game" to oust him as chairman, in a video statement recorded shortly before his fourth arrest in Tokyo last week.
"I'm worried, because the performance of Nissan is declining and I don't think there is vision for the alliance being built," Ghosn said in the seven-minute video, which was made public by his defense lawyers on Tuesday.
Dressed in a suit and white shirt, Ghosn spoke calmly in the video and while he did not mention any Nissan executives by name in his accusations, he was scathing about the direction of the company.
"Frankly, sitting around a table being consensual about a decision, this is not a vision in an industry as competitive as the car industry," he continued, describing Nissan's recent performance as "absolutely mediocre" and pointing to a decline in share price. The stock price has declined about 7% since Ghosn's arrest last November.
"You need to show the future," Ghosn continued. "People who say [leaderships is] either consensus or dictatorship, they don't know what leadership is about."
Ghosn said this "plot" was driven by "a few executives, who for their own interest and selfish fears, are creating a lot value destruction."
"Names? You know them. We are talking about people who played a very dirty game."
The remarks were Ghosn's boldest criticism against Nissan since his arrest in November. Nissan formally ended its 19-year relationship with the former executive when it voted to remove him from its board at an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Monday. Ghosn was rearrested for the fourth time last Thursday on fresh allegations of improperly using company funds, this time allegedly to pay an Omani distributor for his own benefit.
