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Thursday 17 March 2011
Renault bosses apologise to wronged execs
Top Renault bosses made a public apology to three executives falsely accused of industrial espionage and pledged to forgo their bonuses after the Paris prosecutor said the case was unfounded.
Meanwhile, an agent has been charged with fraud, accused of inventing claims
Reuters, AP 16 March 2011
Top Renault bosses made a public apology to three executives falsely accused of industrial espionage and pledged to forgo their bonuses after the Paris prosecutor said the case was unfounded.
A security agent for the company has also been charged with fraud and accused of inventing the espionage claims.
Renault chief executive Carlos Ghosn and chief operating officer Patrick Pelata on Monday promised to compensate the men and offer to reinstate them after firing them in January amid a spying probe that has now turned into a fraud investigation.
Mr. Ghosn told TF1 television that he had refused to accept the resignation of his right-hand man Mr. Pelata over the ‘sorry episode,’ as he ‘didn’t want to add one crisis to another’. He and Mr. Pelata will give up their 2010 bonuses and profits from 2011 stock options in a decision unanimously approved by the 15 per cent state-owned carmaker’s board, Renault said.
Mr. Ghosn’s 2010 bonus was 1.6 million euros (S$2.9 million), while his base salary was 1.2 million euros, a Renault spokeswoman said.
The three fired executives, Bertrand Rochette, Matthieu Tenenbaum and Michel Balthazard, had denied any wrongdoing from the start and have started legal action against the carmaker.
Renault pledged to learn lessons from the debacle and overhaul internal security measures.
Bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, alleged to have belonged to the executives and seen as key to the case over Renault’s electric car technology, did not exist, Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin had earlier told a news conference.
The response of authorities in those countries enabled the prosecutor ‘to dismiss a certain number of theories, notably that which was put forward in the initial complaint by the company Renault’, Mr. Marin said.
The Paris prosecutor said the investigation was now focusing on whether Renault was the victim of fraud as no evidence had emerged backing its complaint of espionage.
Mr. Marin said Renault had already paid 310,000 euros for false information and had 390,000 euros more to pay.
A Renault security manager was placed under investigation for suspected fraud concerning the spying allegations.
Preliminary charges of ‘organised fraud’ were filed Sunday against Dominique Gevrey, once employed by the Defense Ministry intelligence service and now a member of Renault’s security service, prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin told reporters on Monday.
Gevrey had been detained on Friday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport as he prepared to board a flight for Guinea, and has since been jailed.
Renault came under fire when news of the sackings broke for carrying out its own investigation into suspected spying before informing the authorities of its fears.
Mr. Pelata, who joined Renault in 1984 as a workshop manager and rose swiftly through the ranks, had hinted his job may be at risk when the case began to unravel, saying Renault would accept all the consequences ‘up to the highest level of the company, that is to say up to myself’.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde had also said the carmaker would have to take the consequences if the case proved unfounded.
The case briefly caused tensions with China after a government source said investigators were following up a possible link with China before a formal inquiry was launched.
Renault and the government subsequently played down talk of the link and China angrily denied any involvement.
Renault’s botched spying allegations rekindled memories in France of one the most embarrassing episodes in the history of the Fifth Republic, the 1979 ‘sniffer plane’ scam.
In that case, the Elf oil firm (now part of Total Societe Anonyme) was swindled out of large sums to develop a plane designed to sniff out oil deposits which turned out to be a hoax.
In 2008, Deutsche Telekom was embarrassed by the disclosure that it had snooped on its staff by illegally monitoring phone call records and had targeted board members and journalists.
But in June, German prosecutors dropped proceedings against the company’s former chairman and chief executive. -- Reuters, AP
2 comments:
Renault bosses apologise to wronged execs
Meanwhile, an agent has been charged with fraud, accused of inventing claims
Reuters, AP
16 March 2011
Top Renault bosses made a public apology to three executives falsely accused of industrial espionage and pledged to forgo their bonuses after the Paris prosecutor said the case was unfounded.
A security agent for the company has also been charged with fraud and accused of inventing the espionage claims.
Renault chief executive Carlos Ghosn and chief operating officer Patrick Pelata on Monday promised to compensate the men and offer to reinstate them after firing them in January amid a spying probe that has now turned into a fraud investigation.
Mr. Ghosn told TF1 television that he had refused to accept the resignation of his right-hand man Mr. Pelata over the ‘sorry episode,’ as he ‘didn’t want to add one crisis to another’. He and Mr. Pelata will give up their 2010 bonuses and profits from 2011 stock options in a decision unanimously approved by the 15 per cent state-owned carmaker’s board, Renault said.
Mr. Ghosn’s 2010 bonus was 1.6 million euros (S$2.9 million), while his base salary was 1.2 million euros, a Renault spokeswoman said.
The three fired executives, Bertrand Rochette, Matthieu Tenenbaum and Michel Balthazard, had denied any wrongdoing from the start and have started legal action against the carmaker.
Renault pledged to learn lessons from the debacle and overhaul internal security measures.
Bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, alleged to have belonged to the executives and seen as key to the case over Renault’s electric car technology, did not exist, Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin had earlier told a news conference.
The response of authorities in those countries enabled the prosecutor ‘to dismiss a certain number of theories, notably that which was put forward in the initial complaint by the company Renault’, Mr. Marin said.
The Paris prosecutor said the investigation was now focusing on whether Renault was the victim of fraud as no evidence had emerged backing its complaint of espionage.
Mr. Marin said Renault had already paid 310,000 euros for false information and had 390,000 euros more to pay.
A Renault security manager was placed under investigation for suspected fraud concerning the spying allegations.
Preliminary charges of ‘organised fraud’ were filed Sunday against Dominique Gevrey, once employed by the Defense Ministry intelligence service and now a member of Renault’s security service, prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin told reporters on Monday.
Gevrey had been detained on Friday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport as he prepared to board a flight for Guinea, and has since been jailed.
Renault came under fire when news of the sackings broke for carrying out its own investigation into suspected spying before informing the authorities of its fears.
Mr. Pelata, who joined Renault in 1984 as a workshop manager and rose swiftly through the ranks, had hinted his job may be at risk when the case began to unravel, saying Renault would accept all the consequences ‘up to the highest level of the company, that is to say up to myself’.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde had also said the carmaker would have to take the consequences if the case proved unfounded.
The case briefly caused tensions with China after a government source said investigators were following up a possible link with China before a formal inquiry was launched.
Renault and the government subsequently played down talk of the link and China angrily denied any involvement.
Renault’s botched spying allegations rekindled memories in France of one the most embarrassing episodes in the history of the Fifth Republic, the 1979 ‘sniffer plane’ scam.
In that case, the Elf oil firm (now part of Total Societe Anonyme) was swindled out of large sums to develop a plane designed to sniff out oil deposits which turned out to be a hoax.
In 2008, Deutsche Telekom was embarrassed by the disclosure that it had snooped on its staff by illegally monitoring phone call records and had targeted board members and journalists.
But in June, German prosecutors dropped proceedings against the company’s former chairman and chief executive. -- Reuters, AP
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