TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo prosecutors plan to arrest Carlos Ghosn on a fresh claim of understating his income, the Sankei newspaper reported on Tuesday, in a move that could keep the former chairman of Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> in detention until the end of the year.
The motive was reportedly to avoid shareholder and employee criticism over his high compensation
A major longer-term focus is whether and how the ownership structure of the Nissan-Renault alliance might evolve
Nissan removed Ghosn at a high-stakes board meeting on Thursday after alleging he understated his income and used company money for personal use
Carlos Ghosn has told investigators that he had no intention of under-reporting his remuneration on financial documents
Ghosn's arrest in Japan for alleged financial misconduct opens the door for Nissan to try to rebalance the alliance
Ghosn is also suspected of failing to report a profit of four billion yen through stock appreciation rights -- a method for firms to give management a bonus on strong earnings
A Nissan lifer who was elevated to CEO when Ghosn stepped back from the role last year
Without Ghosn at the head of Nissan's board, a merger looks very unlikely
Carlos Ghosn made millions, but whether those funds were correctly declared and deployed is now under investigation.
Amid growing uncertainty over the future of the alliance, finance ministers of Japan and France are due to meet in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to stabilise it
Renault's board is convening for a crisis meeting late Tuesday night in Paris to discuss the future of the Renault-Nissan car alliance
Even the probe into Ghosn's alleged misconduct reveals the fault lines, with the allegations against Ghosn sparked by a whistleblower investigation at Nissan
The news rattled the European equity market, with shares of Renault falling as much as 15 percent in Paris, while Nissan's global depository receipts sank more than 11 per cent
Japanese media said Carlos Ghosn had reported about 10 billion yen of annual compensation as about 5 billion yen for several years
A Nissan spokesman said the company was making checks on the report.