Local time this Monday, the California auto dealer group Sage Group filed a lawsuit against Nissan Motor and its two subsidiaries, claiming that the Japanese automaker’s “corporate corruption and greedy culture” forced the plaintiff to divide the two The popular dealership is "sale" to the "confidants" of Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan.
This lawsuit was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Byron Moldo, the bankruptcy administrator of Sage Group. It also mentioned the Trophy Auto Dealer Group, the owner of the company, Nassar. Nasser Watar is a business partner of the Saudi billionaire Khaled al-Juffali, who is also at the center of a Japanese accusation against Ghosn.
Sage Group’s legal counsel, Miller Barondess LLP, issued a statement stating that Mordor is responsible for Nissan Universal City (Universal City Nissan), Nissan/Infiniti-Glendale Nissan/Infiniti and Nissan-West Receiver of the city of Covina (West Covina Nissan). According to the documents, Nissan North America Inc., Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. and Watar’s Trophy Automotive are listed as co-defendants along with Nissan. The plaintiff’s allegations against the defendant included concealment, breach of contract, breach of the implied contract of good faith and fair dealing, etc.
"The dealer became the victim of the'corporate corruption' and the'culture of greed' that prevailed in Japanese automakers in the Ghosn era." Two other Nissan subsidiaries, Nissan North America and Nissan Inspection Company, obtained unfair benefits from their fraudulent activities. They conspired to drain the Sage Group’s dealers financially and forced them to sell them to Ghosn’s trusted associates. Trophy Automotive.” The
complaint alleges that Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. stopped funding the Sage family’s purchase of cars in 2017, resulting in a reduction in the dealer’s inventory. Later, as the dealer’s financial situation declined, Nissan North America introduced Trophy Automotive as a potential buyer, while obscuring the existing financial connection between Nissan and Trophy Automotive-in the end, the Sage Group heirs fell below expectations by several million The dollar price sold Universal City and West Covina Nissan dealerships to Trophy.
In response, the plaintiff requested a certain amount of damages; a Nissan spokesperson said that the company would not comment on pending litigation. According to
, Vattar and Jufari are the co-owners of Al-Dahana, which owns 50% of Nissan Gulf, and is the regional distributor of Nissan and Infiniti in several Middle Eastern countries. In the Japanese prosecutor’s allegations, Ghosn arranged for a subsidiary of Nissan to pay $14.7 million to a company owned by Zhufari to help Ghosn settle the millions of foreign exchange swap contracts related to his executive compensation. Personal losses of US dollars, but Ghosn and Zhufari denied any wrongdoing or rebate scheme.
The plaintiff pointed out in the lawsuit that “Nissan had a corrupt relationship with Zhufari and Watar” and claimed that after Zhufari released Ghosn on bail, they became Nissan insiders. "Ghosn rewarded them with a violation of the Nissan CEO reserve fund; in addition, Nissan also formed a joint venture with their company Al-Dahana to distribute Nissan in Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Products.”
“Trophy is an internal organization of Nissan, and the company will benefit from the losses of the Sage Group.” The document stated, “They carefully concealed Ghosn’s personal financial relationships with Zhufari and Vattar. preventThe Sage Group discovered these facts. "
The complaint also claims that Nissan improperly withheld Sage Group's $3 million, thereby forcing the company to sell the remaining two dealerships to another popular Nissan dealer for a franchise value of $0. Dennis Lin. A lawyer for the plaintiff stated that this was “unheard of in the automotive industry.”
On November 19, 2018, Ghosn faced four charges in Japan. The first two charges were due to his failure to disclose More than $80 million in deferred remuneration; the other two are allegations that he violated the trust and embezzled company funds for personal gain-Ghosn denies all charges. If convicted on four counts, he will face 15 years in prison and up to 150 million yen. (1.4 million US dollars) fine. Currently, Ghosn is still awaiting trial in Japan.
