Photo/Illutration Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor chairman, is interviewed by The Asahi Shimbun in Beirut on Jan. 10. (Tetsuro Takehana)

A Nissan Motor Co. report detailed how its former boss, Carlos Ghosn, allegedly funneled billions of yen overseas to help acquaintances and hold private parties that had no connection with the automaker’s business operations.

The report was submitted to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Jan. 16 to demonstrate how the company was improving its corporate governance.

But the picture painted of Ghosn showed there was another purpose to the report.

“It serves to counter what (Ghosn) said at the news conference,” a Nissan executive said.

Ghosn, 65, fled Japan for Lebanon in late December while out on bail.

At a news conference on Jan. 8 in Beirut, the former Nissan chairman said he never misused company funds and snuck out of Japan because he believed he would not receive a fair trial.

Some of the allegations in Nissan’s report overlap with the charges of aggravated breach of trust that the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office brought against Ghosn.

But some items in the report were not mentioned in Nissan’s business-improvement report that was submitted to the TSE in June.

The latest report said Ghosn had access to a “CEO reserve,” essentially a separate budget that he could use as he wished. The report said Ghosn used that reserve to transmit a total of $46.7 million (about 5.1 billion yen) to companies abroad headed by his acquaintances.

At the news conference in Beirut, Ghosn said he could not use a single dollar from the CEO reserve without other executives signing off on the expenditure.

However, the Nissan report said no other board members or auditors could discover the suspicious nature of the expenditures because Ghosn had concealed the payments.

The Nissan report also listed some of the expenditures paid for through Renault-Nissan B.V., the Dutch holding company that served as an overseeing entity over the two automakers.

For example, at least 11.37 million euros (about 1.4 billion yen) was paid out from Renault-Nissan B.V. for such items as a party at the Chateau de Versailles Palace as well as for Ghosn to invite friends to the Cannes Film Festival, according to the report.

In its own report released in June 2019, Renault acknowledged a number of dubious expenditures made for Ghosn’s personal use from Renault-Nissan B.V.

The two companies each contributed half of the capital to the holding company.

The Nissan report said one reason for the lack of oversight over Renault-Nissan B.V. was that it was not included as a consolidated subsidiary of the partners, meaning it was not subject to audits by either company.

The report also said very few people were aware of the various payments made from the holding company.

Nissan and Renault have already agreed to stop using the holding company as an active entity.

The Nissan report also said Ghosn received an additional 140 million yen in incentive bonuses linked to Nissan’s stock price by changing the date on which the stock appreciation right was exercised.

The report also said three Nissan officials had been disciplined as of Jan. 13 for their involvement in the alleged financial wrongdoing attributed to Ghosn.

(This article was compiled from reports by Takehiro Tomoda and Takeho Morita.)