Carlos Ghosn sues Nissan-Mitsubishi for millions in damages

Carlos Ghosn is reported to have launched a lawsuit against Nissan and Mitsubishi after he was removed as chairman of the Alliance last year on charges of financial misconduct.

Dutch newspaper NRC claims Ghosn is seeking €15 million (£13.5m) in damages in a case in the Netherlands, with his lawyer claiming proper procedure wasn't followed when the two Japanese companies ousted their chairman.

"In the Netherlands, if you want to fire an executive, you have to first tell him what he's being accused of and you have to provide him with the evidence for the accusations. Neither of those things has happened," lawyer Laurens de Graaf told the paper.

The case is being reviewed but a trial date hasn't been set. So far, Ghosn has launched no cases against his other former employer, Renault, because he resigned from the French firm's board of his own accord.

Ghosn, who has been charged with a number of financial misconduct offences, was planning to tell the world his side of the story in a press conference earlier this year and created a Twitter account to inform the public. However, he was re-arrested by Japanese authorities the next day before being freed on a £3.6m bail later that month.

He has since regularly repeated his claims he is being framed by Nissan executives and is innocent of the charges against him, including understating his income over five years by £34m. 

The 65-year-old was dismissed from his role as Nissan's chairman after he was arrested last November, but he officially remained on the board until a vote in Tokyo in April. 

Greg Kelly, the former Nissan special director who was arrested at the same time as Ghosn, was also sacked. Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard was added to the board as part of an effort to stabilise the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance following Ghosn's arrest.