TOKYO: Nissan board members voted unanimously to sack Carlos Ghosn as chairman on Thursday, a spectacular fall from grace for the once-revered boss whose arrest for financial misconduct stunned the car industry and the business world.

Ghosn stands accused of under-reporting his income by millions of dollars and a host of other financial irregularities, alleged after a months-long internal Nissan probe following a whistleblower report.

His ouster as chairman represents an astonishing turnaround for the titan of the auto sector who revived the Japanese brand and forged an alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, which sold a combined 10.6 million cars last year - more than any other firm.

It also throws the future of the alliance into doubt, as Ghosn was the architect of the fractious tie-up — which employs 450,000 people globally — and the glue holding it together.

“After reviewing a detailed report of the internal investigation, the board voted unanimously ... to discharge Carlos Ghosn as Chairman of the Board,” the statement said.

Nissan also stressed its “long-standing... partnership with Renault remains unchanged” and that “the mission is to minimise the potential impact and confusion on the day-to-day cooperation” between the firms.

Prosecutors intercepted the Brazil-born tycoon Monday as he landed in Tokyo on a private jet, accusing him and another executive Greg Kelly of understating the chairman’s income by around $44m between June 2011 and June 2015.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2018