TOKYO (AP) — Japanese media reported Monday that Tokyo prosecutors are questioning Carlos Ghosn, the man credited with helping engineer a remarkable turnaround at Nissan Motor Co., over allegations he underreported millions of dollars in income.
Nissan, based in Yokohama, said it was looking into the reports and planned a news conference later in the day. It gave no other details, while prosecutors declined comment.
The Asahi newspaper said Ghosn, who is chairman of Nissan, submitted voluntarily to questioning about suspected violations of financial and exchange regulations. The national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo carried similar reports.
Asahi said Ghosn is suspected of failing to report hundreds of millions of yen (millions of dollars) in income.
The Brazilian-born Ghosn, 64, helped resuscitate Nissan from near bankruptcy after he was sent in by the Japanese automaker's alliance partner Renault SA of France.
He served as Nissan chief executive from 2001 until April 2017, and also was named chief executive of Renault in 2005, leading the two major automakers at once. In 2016, he also became the chairman of the board of Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
For the past two decades, he has maintained an unusually high profile in a nation where foreign chief executives of major Japanese companies are still relatively rare.
Ghosn has appeared on magazine covers dressed in kimono, vowing to renew the Nissan brand. He was widely praised in Japanese industry circles for delivering sorely needed cost cuts and introducing greater efficiency at a time when Nissan needed a fresh start.
The Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi group is among the biggest auto alliances in the world, selling about 10 million vehicles a year. Before joining Renault, Ghosn worked for Michelin North America.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.
