TOKYO – Trophy Automotive Dealer Group, the California retailer under review by Nissan Motor Co. as part of its investigation of ousted boss Carlos Ghosn, says it is unaware of such a review and maintains that its operations are separate from any businesses embroiled in the scandal.
Trophy Automotive purchased two Nissan dealerships as part of a multiple dealership acquisition from a local dealer group in California in September 2017 as part of a turnaround effort, a public relations firm representing CEO Nasser Watar said in letter to Automotive News.
Trophy Automotive is fully owned by Watar and his family, and its business is separate from that of Al-Dahana, a company jointly owned by Watar and Saudi businessman Khaled Al Juffali. The disclosure came in a letter on Wednesday issued on behalf of Watar by his New York-based public relations representative Terry Rooney, founder and CEO of RooneyPartners.
Juffali is a central figure in the breach-of-trust allegations brought against Ghosn. Japanese prosecutors allege that Ghosn arranged payment of $14.7 million from a Nissan subsidiary to a company owned by Juffali to help Ghosn settle millions of dollars of personal losses on currency swap contracts concerning his executive compensation.
Watar and Juffali are joint owners of Al-Dahana which, in turn, owns 50 percent of Nissan Gulf, the regional distributor for Nissan and Infiniti in several Middle Eastern countries.
Ghosn and Juffali have denied any misconduct or kickback scheme.
Dealership franchises
Nissan’s expanding internal investigation of possible misconduct related to Ghosn is looking at the awarding of some dealership franchises in the U.S., a source familiar with the probe has said.
Trophy Automotive is under review as part of that campaign, the person said. Trophy Automotive has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
“We are not aware of any review in connection with the two Nissan car dealerships owned and operated by Trophy Automotive Dealer Group,” Trophy Automotive’s letter said.
Nissan has a team of people scouring the company for evidence of possible misconduct linked to Ghosn's long tenure as head of the automaker. A person familiar with the probe said Nissan is ordering especially close audits of operations in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
Ghosn was arrested Nov. 19 and now faces three indictments, two for allegedly hiding tens of millions of dollars in deferred compensation and one for allegedly temporarily transferring personal losses to Nissan in a breach-of-trust case. Ghosn denies any wrongdoing.
In the wider Nissan saga, RooneyPartners also represents the Khaled Juffali Company, the company owned by Juffali that is linked to the breach-of-trust allegations against Ghosn.
