Ex Nissan chairman Ghosn to be detained till New Year

A court in Tokyo approved on Sunday a request from prosecutors to extend the detention for Carlos Ghosn, the ousted chairman of Nissan Motor Co., till Jan. 1, 2019.

The approval came after Ghosn was served with a fresh arrest warrant Friday for allegedly having the Japanese automaker shouldering his personal investment losses of some 1.85 billion yen (17 million U.S. dollars).

It was the third arrest warrant for Ghosn following the ones for claims that he had underreported remuneration in securities reports.

Ghosn was initially arrested on Nov. 19 for allegedly understating about 5 billion yen (45 million dollars) of his 10-billion-yen compensation during the five years through March 2015.

He was given a second arrest warrant on Dec. 10 for allegedly understating an additional 4.27 billion yen (38.4 million dollars) for the three years through March this year.

Under the Japanese law, a suspect could be detained for up to 23 days for an arrest warrant served by police and 22 days for a warrant served by prosecutors. As authorities can add charges with fresh warrants, a person could be detained indefinitely if approved by a court.

The latest warrant came as a surprise as Ghosn was expected to be nearing release on bail from the Tokyo Detention House since his first arrest.

Ghosn joined Nissan in 1999 and brought the ailing automaker out of its financial difficulties under a capital alliance with Renault. He became Renault's CEO in 2005.

Mitsubishi Motors joined the Nissan-Renault alliance in 2016. Renault owns a 43.4-percent stake in Nissan, while Nissan holds a 15-percent stake in Renault and a 34-percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors.

Following his arrest, Ghosn has been dismissed from office by Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., triggering a leadership battle in the Nissan-Renault SA-Mitsubishi Motors Corp. automotive alliance.