Thierry Bollore, Renault’s former CEO who was ousted in October, had tried to signal alleged conflicts of interest and governance problems at Nissan, the automaker’s Japanese alliance partner, a French newspaper reported on Monday.
Bollore had raised questions over the Nissan’s internal investigation encompassing former alliance boss Carlos Ghosn, Le Monde said, citing an Oct. 7 letter addressed to Nissan’s board, of which he was a member.
Nissan and Renault were left spinning by Ghosn’s arrest in Tokyo a year ago, on financial misconduct charges which he denies. They have since tried to rework on their strained partnership by revising their management teams, including by purging them of Ghosn allies and removing people in top jobs at the time of the scandal.
Bollore was promoted to Renault CEO when Ghosn left even though he was known for his close ties to the alliance founder. Bollore was eventually pushed out as Renault’s CEO on Oct. 11, days after sending his letter.
In comments sent to Reuters, Nissan spokeswoman Azusa Momose denied there were any irregularities in its internal investigation of Ghosn’s affairs, and added that the company had reviewed its processes once again following Bollore’s letter.
“Nissan’s independent directors confirmed that the investigation was properly conducted and could be relied on,” Momose said.
Nissan directors had discussed all the allegations raised by Bollore and the company “concluded that Bollore’s concerns were not founded and were based for the most part on inaccurate information and speculation,” she said.
He also raised issues with the chain of command at Nissan, saying some keyboard members were sometimes kept in the dark on internal matters.
Renault, which is still searching for a permanent replacement for Bollore as CEO, had no immediate comment.
As well as changing its CEO, Nissan recently demoted senior vice president Hari Nada, a key whistleblower against Ghosn whose role was also questioned in Bollore’s letter, although its internal investigation had found no evidence against the executive.
