Recently watched a documentary on Netflix title Fugitive: The curious case of Carlos Ghosn. Below are some of my views I collected based on research that goes beyond what is shown in the documentary.
The documentary on Netflix about Carlos Ghosn left many questions unanswered, but a deeper look into the details of Ghosn’s illegal activities reveals a story that is all too familiar: greed and power.
One of the key players in this story is Hari Nada, also known as Hemant Kumar Nadanasabapathy, a Malaysian-born lawyer of Indian descent. As a senior legal counsel and close confidant of Ghosn, Nada was privy to the inner workings of Ghosn’s illegal activities. But it was not until 2018, as Ghosn’s tenure at Nissan was coming to an end, that Nada and other executives at Nissan began to speak out.
There are a few reasons why Nada may have chosen to (finally) blow the whistle on Ghosn. Perhaps he and other executives at Nissan had grown frustrated with Ghosn’s management style and felt that he had too much power within the company. Notably, as Ghosn’s tenure was ending, he was aligning with the interests of the French government and pushing for a merger (of Nissan) with Renault. This did not sit well with the Japanese executives, who wanted to maintain their autonomy. When they approached Nada for an internal investigation, he sensed danger and realized that he may have been an accessory to improper behavior. He then decided to cooperate with the Japanese prosecutors in exchange for immunity. However, the most crucial piece of the puzzle was that Ghosn was no longer the beloved “Mr. FixIt” and did not enjoy the patronage of either the French or Japanese governments. But the question remains, why did Nada choose to go to the Japanese prosecutors instead of addressing the issue internally?
After the arrest of Carlos Ghosn in 2018, a number of charges were levied against him. Due to the controversial nature of the case, all of these have been heavily scrutinized, leading to a lack of clarity about the extent of the wrongdoing. The poor handling (of the case) by the prosecution also raises concerns about legal practices within Japan. Additionally, the potential impact on Japan as a global business partner has also come into question. No car manufacturer has tasted success in Japan, with the exception of Nissan-Renault that thrived during most of the 20 years when Ghosn was at the helm. General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, and Daimler all tried and failed.
One thing is certain, the actions of Nada and other executives at Nissan led to significant changes within the company and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. It also had a major impact on the Nissan share price, which plummeted by 69% and wiped $24 billion off the market capitalization. But in the end, who really gets affected by all of this? While Ghosn remains a free fugitive and Nada roams free, it’s the investors and the workers who bear the brunt of the consequences.