Ghosn Resigns From Top Job at Renault

Carlos Ghosn learns that paybacks are a bitch

For two decades Carlos Ghosn stood astride the global auto industry. His tenure atop Renault SA ended in humbler fashion, in a cramped prison cell on the outskirts of Tokyo.

The 64-year-old resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of the largest French carmaker late on Jan. 23, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He is set to be replaced as chairman by Michelin chief Jean-Dominique Senard, and as CEO by Thierry Bollore, who’s been filling in on an interim basis, people familiar with the matter have said. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux confirmed on local radio the duo will be presented to Renault’s board on Thursday, without specifying roles.

It is rumored that then Board Chairman Ghosn tried to fire Hiroto Saikawa, President of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. Soon thereafter Japanese authorities arrested Ghosn and threw him in the slammer. Ghosn claims all the charges are false. Regardless Saikawa has had the last laugh as he remains in power while Ghosn sits in a cold and dark concrete block cell in Japan.