Days after the resignation of the Nissan's Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa, the Securities and Exchange Commission officially launched an investigation into the company's finances. The probe will reportedly look at the way the company has been handling its executive pay. Saikawa has been the center of attention in the ongoing scandal within the company, which also involved its former CEO, Carlos Ghosn.
Nissan announced this week that it had already received the inquiry from SEC and that it plans to fully cooperate with the investigation. When asked for further details regarding the investigation, Nissan officials refused to comment. Nissan is now actively looking for a new global CEO to head its operations.
Ghosn was recently arrested in Tokyo and is now facing numerous charges in the country. The former Nissan chairman allegedly mishandled the company's funds and reportedly concealed more than US$88 million in executive pay. According to Japanese news media, Ghosn intended to fire Saikawa when he flew to Tokyo.
In 1999, Renault saved Nissan from bankruptcy when it invested US$6 billion to bail it out. The company then assigned the 64-year-old executive to oversee the bailout. Ghosn was then eventually assigned to become the Japanese company's CEO. Ghosn held a variety of roles within the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance until his arrest in November of last year. Before he was arrested, Ghosn headed a team that was working on turning around Mitsubishi branding.
Saikawa and his sudden decision to step down as CEO have come under fire given his alleged role that led to the arrest of his predecessor. Saikawa also mentioned during a press conference that he felt that Ghosn was gaining "too much power." That statement was taken by some as an indication of a growing power struggle within the company's top brass. Ghosn arrest even raised questions of whether or not the move was part of a coup attempt by Saikawa and his partners at Nissan.
Following Ghosn arrest, Saikawa immediately took over as Nissan's CEO. Mitsubishi followed suit and removed Ghosn as its CEO. Renault, on the other hand, did not remove Ghosn's title as its CEO stating that it still wanted to see how the case would play out. Despite getting the support of Renault, Ghosn still tendered his resignation as its CEO. The position was quickly filled by Jean-Dominique Senard and Thierry Bolloré, who will be acting as the company's chairman and its CEO, respectively. Heads of the alliance likely do not want to see their partnership break down given that they have made some headway in improving their sales numbers. The group topped the global sales charts in 2017, partly thanks to the addition of Mitsubishi in 2016.
