NISSAN So far has said very little about why Ashwani GuptaThe company’s chief executive officer (COO) as of 2019, did not renew his contract at the June 2023 shareholder meeting, but new details are starting to emerge about what led to his departure. COO.
Two insiders said ReutersNissan installed a camera system at Gupta’s home in Tokyo, and it was likely done at the behest of CEO Makoto Uchida as part of an investigation into allegations that Gupta harassed a female employee in March.
News of this latest conspiracy at Nissan began to leak around April this year when Hari Nada – the chief executive officer who revealed former CEO Carlos Ghosn’s financial crime allegations – sent a letter to independent directors. established by Nissan.
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Ashwani Gupta
In it, he said that the automaker had investigated the complaint against Gupta and asked him to resign. Other reports suggest that the harassment investigation has yet to reach a conclusion on the matter.
It seems that during this investigation, Gupta was monitored by the company.
Nada’s letter suggests Uchida played a role in Nissan’s decision to oversee Gupta. Nada also asked the firm to hire an international law firm to review how the internal investigation was initiated and conducted, to determine if the outcome of the investigation was predetermined and to see if the CEO was participate or not.
In May, independent Nissan executives hired US law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell to investigate Nada’s claims. The law firm is expected to wrap up its work in July at the earliest and present its preliminary findings in a meeting with Nissan’s board on June 20; both Gupta and Uchida were excluded from the meeting.
According to insiders, the law firm discovered that Nissan had installed two camera systems at Gupta’s home in Shibuya, Tokyo. One is operated by an external security company and the other is set up and monitored by Nissan’s internal security team.
Davis Polk & Wardwell concluded Nissan’s audit committee used its investigative powers arbitrarily, but it has not yet stated whether Gupta was aware of the camera systems, or whether they were obtained. installed at the request of CEO Uchida or not.
The law firm has not yet reached a conclusion on whether the cameras are illegal. A fraud investigator and lawyer says Reuters that Japanese law allows companies to monitor work-issued computers and phones, as well as investigate employee behavior outside of work in some cases.
An earlier report from the newsline revealed that the investigation into Gupta was instigated by Uchida in an attempt to gain leverage over his second-in-command and force him out of the company.
Gupta and several other directors reportedly disagreed with the terms of the remastered Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance negotiated by Uchida.
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Makoto Uchida
The reestablish relationship Renault/Nissan were announced in early 2023, including Renault’s promise to sell off Nissan’s stake and limit voting rights to 15%.
On the other hand, Nissan will eventually gain voting rights in Renault, and the Japanese company will hold a 15% stake in Renault’s electric vehicle arm. There will also be technology transfers from Nissan to Renault.
Gupta has been unusually prominent in his role as COO, playing a lead role in product and company announcements.
ONE Reuters The report said that during the pandemic, Gupta’s supporters were looking forward to his appointment as co-CEO to improve relations with Renault and help run Nissan’s turnaround, but the promotion This advance never happened.
