Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn’s detention has been extended till 1 January by a Tokyo court. 

The Tokyo district court said in a statement to media, “Today, a decision was made to detain (Ghosn). The full term of the detention will expire on 1 January.”

This means that the former Nissan Chief will spend both Christmas and New Year in detention. However, it does not mean that he will be free on New Year’s Day, as prosecutors can apply for a further 10-day extension as they quiz him on allegations of financial misconduct.

Authorities are pursuing three separate lines of enquiry against the former Nissan chief who was arrested on 19 November on charges of financial misconduct.

They suspect he conspired with his right-hand man, US executive Greg Kelly, to stash away around half of his income or $44 Mn over five fiscal years from 2010. He is also alleged to have under-reported his salary to the tune of four billion yen over the next three fiscal years in order to avoid criticism that his pay was too high.

Thirdly, he is alleged to have shifted a personal investment loss made at the height of the financial crisis worth more than $16 Mn to the Japanese automaker with help from a Saudi acquaintance.

While prosecutors have pressed formal charges over the first allegation but not yet over the other accusations. However, Ghosn reportedly denies all the allegations, insisting the transactions were done legally.

While the court threw out a request from prosecutors to extend his detention over the second set of allegations (under-reporting his salary between 2015 and 2018), his hopes of freedom were dashed when prosecutors sought and obtained his re-arrest over the new accusations of breach of trust.

“The accused was responsible for managing Nissan’s overall operations and for dutifully fulfilling his role as CEO not to cause damage to Nissan and its subsidiaries... but he took action that betrayed his role and caused financial damage to Nissan,” the prosecutors alleged in a statement.