Proving conspiracy is Carlos Ghosn’s court tactic

Bloomberg

A year after his arrest, Carlos Ghosn‘s strategy to exonerate himself from allegations of fraud and financial wrongdoing is becoming clearer: it’s all a conspiracy.
Out on bail, the former chairman and chief executive officer of the global alliance between Nissan Motor Co, Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp intends to show that prosecutors, the trade ministry and the Japanese automaker colluded to arrest and charge him. They leaked “false information to the media to damage Mr Ghosn’s reputation and impair his ability to receive a fair trial,” according to Junichiro Hironaka, Ghosn’s lead counsel.
While media attention has faded since his shock arrest last year, Ghosn’s legal battle is likely to be Japan’s biggest-ever corporate trial.
The outcome could also influence foreigners’ perceptions about working in Japan and fuel questions about the country’s legal system, in which prosecutors have a near-perfect conviction rate. In the past year, Nissan’s shares have declined by about a third as profitability slumped and management was overhauled.
“It has been one full year since our client was ambushed and arrested without warning at Haneda Airport,” Hironaka said in a statement. “Prosecutors have repeatedly and systematically denied Mr Ghosn fundamental rights of due process and turned the presumption of innocence on its head.”
The prosecutor’s office and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry declined to comment. Nissan spokeswoman Azusa Momose said the company will take necessary steps for Ghosn to be accountable for his actions but declined to comment on the former chairman’s specific defense strategy.
Ghosn has hired more than a dozen lawyers and publicists to assert his innocence and defend his reputation. The team has been filing motions for dismissal and dealing with the press while Ghosn, 65, spends most days working in his lawyer’s office preparing for a trial that will probably start in the first half of 2020.
Hironaka says he can prove his client’s innocence. In addition to disputing the four charges against the former executive, the lawyer plans to show that prosecutors worked illegally with government officials and Nissan employees to “drum up allegations of wrongdoing” to remove Ghosn and prevent further integration between Renault and Nissan. They also tampered with and concealed evidence, his lawyers argued in a filing to the Tokyo District Court, seeking dismissal of charges.
The goal of the conspiracy was to oust Ghosn to prevent him from further integrating Nissan and Renault, which threatened the Japanese carmaker’s autonomy, according to Hironaka.
Prosecutors relied heavily on some of Nissan’s employees and consultants to trample on Ghosn’s legal rights, he said. They are still investigating in order to to collect more evidence to present at trial because what they have right now isn’t enough to establish Ghosn’s guilt, the lawyer said.