01x01 - Hubris

[bunniefuu]

- [elevator bell dings]
- [doors open]

[door opens]

- [door closes]
- [Carlos] Success can be a problem.

[whirring]

It can be dangerous because you
may forget what made the success.

You may become self-centered, arrogant.

If you learn from failure,
it can carry a lot of positives for you.

[breathing shakily]

If you carry out by success, it may
prepare big deceptions for the future.

[McLain] When Carlos Ghosn
was the head of Renault and Nissan,

you know, you could see it in his eyes
and the way he spoke,

he was a man who played by the rules.

Everything was by the book
for Carlos Ghosn.

At least, so it seemed.

[reporter 1] Breaking news.

Nissan has revealed that its
chairman has been arrested.

It not only seemed like he
had the Midas touch, he did.

- [audience cheering]
- [reporter 2] The rock star chairman.

The savior of Nissan.

[reporter 3] He's in a global
super league of business leaders.

[Kostov] Time magazine calls him
one of the most respected

business executives in
the world, ahead of Bill Gates.

[reporter 3] And here in Japan,
he's nothing less than a national hero.

[Kostov] It's kind of the story of Icarus.

The guy soared to the highest of highs

and then he falls to the lowest of lows.

[reporter 4]
Tokyo prosecutors have rearrested

Nissan former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.

[reporter 5]
This is an extraordinary situation.

It is getting worse.
He is once again behind bars.

[Passi]
People were just absolutely stunned.

And a lot of people
were actively saying, "This is a coup.

This is crazy."

[in Japanese]
We discovered significant misconduct.

[in English] We know it's a conspiracy.

He betrayed my trust, my respect.

[Carole Ghosn]
He started saying, "I need to get out.

If I stay in Japan,
it's gonna be a slow death."

[reporter 6] Breaking news.
Carlos Ghosn on the run.

Carlos Ghosn has fled Tokyo.

The plan was so brilliant
because it was an optical illusion.

It was the most extraordinary thing.

[reporter 7] There's some
confusion about how Ghosn escaped.

I'm risking my life to save his life.

[Nick Kostov] It seemed
like the perfect crime.

You don't run unless you got something
to run from.

[engine humming]

Do I feel betrayed? Absolutely.

[reporter 8] We're up
against two competing narratives.

Is Carlos Ghosn a victim...

or a villain?

[audio distortion]

- [Jones] We're ready for you.
- [Carlos stammers] Can I come?

- [Jones] Yeah.
- Good.

[reporter 9] Carlos Ghosn.
It seems that he remains a mystery.

[Carlos] Leadership is not something
which is born with you.

It's something that,
within the special circumstances of life,

anyone can exercise.

Ordinary people, normal people,
hardworking people.

You can achieve whatever you want
in the world...

[laughing]

as long as you're willing
to take the challenge.

[officer, in Japanese] What's in the box?

[Carlos, in English]
And ready to take the risk.

[speaks Arabic indistinctly]

Mmm.

[grunts, sighs]

[breathes heavily]

[in English]
Is the shot okay? Anything wrong, or...

[Jones] Looks very good from where I am.

- You happy?
- Good.

[Jones] So take us back to November 2018.
You know, why were you flying to Japan?

What was on your mind at the time?

Oh,
I was going for a regular week in Japan.

So you had no sense
of a plot? You had no...

- No. No. No.
- Sense there was something going on?

[Carlos] I was very calm.
I had a board meeting of Nissan.

I had a meeting with
the Governor of Tokyo.

I have also one of my daughter
who was visiting me in Japan.

So I was happy. I was going to have
a nice dinner with her.

And I was going just for a normal week.

But at arrival at the airport,

they said that there was something wrong
with my passport.

"Can you come with us to the office?"

And there was a small guy
sitting on the side,

and this is when he came to me and said,

"Look, uh, I am working
with the Tokyo prosecutor office.

We want you to come with us because
we have some questions to ask you."

And then this I say,
"Well, this must be a misunderstanding.

I have my daughter waiting.
I have dinner."

He said "No, no. I'm sorry."
I said, "Can I call her?"

He said, "No, no.
You cannot use your phone."

And this is where I understood
that this was very serious.

[reporters clamoring]

[reporter 1] Breaking news.

In the past few minutes,
Nissan has revealed that

its chairman has been arrested.

It's a fall from grace
as brutal as it is sudden.

Carlos Ghosn, the all-powerful boss,

arrested as he got off his private jet
in Tokyo.

The whole world collapsed for me.

First, I was shocked.
I was traumatized, you know.

It was horrible.

Numerous significant acts of misconduct
have been uncovered such as the person...

[Carlos] It took me some time
to realize that Nissan

was launching a massive campaign
in the media manipulating public opinion.

[speaking Japanese]

[reporter 10] We have directors of Nissan

who had some very harsh words for Ghosn.

He'd managed by fear, by direction,
by dictatorial...

- They were on the offensive everywhere.
- [reporter speaking Japanese]

And not only in Japan,
but particularly in France.

[in French] The era of Carlos Ghosn
is officially over.

[Le Maire] Last night,
Mr. Carlos Ghosn submitted his resignation

to Renault's provisional management.

[Carlos, in English] The board of Renault
supported me for a few weeks.

Then at a certain point in time,
they shot me in the head.

[engine starts, revs]

[Schweitzer]
The French people love Renault.

[French music playing]

They say their blood cells

or their heart is in the form of
a diamond which is a symbol of Renault.

It was a quite, uh, successful firm
with 30 years of continuous growth.

[tires screeching]

- [engine revs]
- But in '94, '95,

we were facing major difficulties.

I mean,
we were looking face-to-face with death.

DÉVASTÉ - CALAMITÉ -
FAILLITE - CATACLYSME

LA FIN?

But then one of the strategists came up
with the name of Carlos Ghosn

whom I had never heard about.

My first meeting with Schweitzer
was a very cold

and structured and rational meeting.

He obviously was a very different person
than me

and I felt the difference immediately,
but it's fine.

He was a very impressive person
with a drive and intensity,

which was very exciting.

You know, he was the sort
of man you felt would forge ahead.

The chairman, CEO and president of
Michelin North America, Mr. Carlos Ghosn.

Mr. Chairman, welcome to the program.

I'm glad to be here.

[Schweitzer] He had very impressive
track record at Michelin.

I mean, he had managed a major merger
in the US and return to profits.

So the possibility of a quick turnaround
was clear in my mind and in our mind.

[Carlos] A lot of people said, "You have
zero chance of being successful."

But it was very exciting,
in a certain way, to say, "You know what?

I have the opportunity
to prove them all wrong."

So I told him,
"Well, I want to recruit you."

And, uh, Ghosn said, uh,
"Well, thank you very much.

I will come."

I must mention one point
which I found interesting.

François Michelin told me,
"Look, you should not leave him alone.

You should phone him every week."

And I found that a bit surprising

because it showed that maybe
there was something a bit fragile.

[audience cheering]

[cheering continues]

[Kostov] Ghosn was in a league
of his own, and that fascinated me.

But he's also kind of an outsider.

He's come from the Amazon Rainforest,
born in the, like, backwater of Brazil,

- basically, in a place called Porto Velho...
- [laughing]

to Lebanese mum, Lebanese dad.

I mean, it is the Amazon, and it's tough.

And so when Ghosn was... was very young,
um, he had ki... [stammers] weak health...

[shutters clicking]

and they moved back to Lebanon.

And then as a teenager, he came to France,
ended up at a university in Paris.

And I think growing up in these
different cultures gave him... [stammers]

a-a huge competitive advantage in,

you know,
a globalized and globalizing world.

[upbeat French music playing]

[reporter 1, in French]
This man is the right-hand man

to the President of Renault.

Carlos Ghosn starts work tomorrow.

[Quest, in English]
Carlos Ghosn's vision, first of all,

was you've gotta be profitable
and then everything flows from that.

So he gets to Renault, and he cuts costs,
and he does it savagely.

The French carmaker Renault
plans to close a plant in Belgium.

The decision means
the loss of over 3,000 jobs.

[clamoring]

[shouting indistinctly]

[Carlos] I said, "Look, this plethora
of people must cost a fortune.

What are the strengths,
and what are the weaknesses?

So we can build on our strength
and try to erase our weakness."

[clamoring continues]

That's all.

He's ruthless. Absolutely.

I mean, if the company needs
to shed 5,000 jobs,

"Very sorry. Thank you for your work.

Don't let the door hit you
on the way out."

[reporter 2, in French]
Carlos Ghosn's nickname:

le cost cutter.

The result is a spectacular
turnaround for Renault.

[reporter 3] A profit of

2,300,000,000 francs.

- Nicole?
- Papa?

Maman.

[Schweitzer, in English]
It was an astounding success,

- but still, I felt that we were too small...
- [music ends]

too French,
and that we had to internationalize.

Therefore, we should have a partner

whose strengths
were in different markets than ours.

And American companies,
they were simply too expensive for us.

But Asian companies afraid
of facing bankruptcy,

I think that Ghosn saw this
as an opportunity.

[chuckles] Simple as that.

[people chattering]

[reporter 4] Nissan,
one of Japan's biggest corporate names,

has gone into loss.

[in Japanese] Today Nissan Corporation...

Nissan cars...

Nissan Motors released its results
at 3pm today.

[people clamoring]

[McLain, in English] The car industry
in Japan is without a doubt

the biggest source of national pride.

But when Carlos Ghosn came in 1999,

I mean, Nissan was dead in the water.

A respected carmaker
but troubled and losing money.

I mean, nobody wanted it.

Even the banks that used to lend out money
like candy were just like,

"Okay, no more."

But he believed that he could
rescue this basket case of a company.

[people chattering]

[Kostov]
Nissan just needed an injection of cash.

[photographer speaking indistinctly]

[Kostov] So what Renault decided to do
is take a stake in the company of 37%.

But instead of straight merger,

the two companies remain two companies.

Essentially, what they've decided to do is

to create this kind of weird
construction... that was the alliance...

And kind of support each other.

[Schweitzer] Other companies
considered Nissan too risky.

It was losing money on a continuous basis.

It was heavily indebted...

but I had the best turnaround expert
in the automobile industry.

Carlos Ghosn.

I told him, look, uh,
"I think we can do it.

If we fail, you will be fired.

I will be fired."

- [people chattering]
- [camera shutters clicking]

[Carlos]
For me, the success of this alliance,

that was signed in 1999,
was based on two principles.

Okay?

Trust and sincere,
effective collaboration.

And if any one of the two were missing,
this whole thing doesn't have any meaning.

[Saikawa] When I first heard his name,
I didn't know almost anything.

But if you imagine that some strange...
Stranger suddenly restructuring Nissan,

it could be a big shock, I think.

[Carlos] And we must address
the real problems of the company

without any compromise.

It will require a lot of sacrifices...

but I'm tell... I'm telling you,

I'm feeding a lot of determination
into the company to do it.

And without any compromise...

[McLain] For Carlos Ghosn, there was
the immediate problem of a culture clash.

In fact, some of the longtimers... I mean,
in... in the Japanese parlance,

they would refer to them
as the "old boys"...

Were deeply suspicious
of Renault's intentions and some of them,

frankly,
a little bit resentful of this outsider.

[Carlos] I knew I was playing on my future
and my credibility.

But then this was it, it was a totally
foreign country, different culture.

And there was no reference,
there was no book,

there was nothing explained to you
how you do these kind of things.

Just need to imagine and do it.

[audience applauding]

- Thank you, Harao
- San.

The key facts about Nissan
point to one reality.

Nissan is in bad shape.

His plan was basically
to turn 20 billion in debt

into a profit in a couple of years.

I mean, it was unheard of.

This effort will gather suppliers...

[McLain] He was going to slash tens
of thousands of jobs, close factories,

which frankly was shocking in Japan.

You know, people don't get fired
or laid off in Japan.

[chanting in Japanese]

[Kostov]
The reaction was "Wow, this is brutal."

[all shouting]

This is some... some real medicine.

I mean, he received death threats

and he had to have security with him
at all times.

How he got through it
was basically just trying not to overthink

and just put his head down
and just charge forward

and just keep going
and hope that it works.

[Carlos] I said from the beginning,

if I don't grow the company
in three years, I'm out.

If I don't cut the debt in half
in three years, I'm out.

So I needed every single minute of the day

and every single ounce of energy
that I would have

in order to make it happen.

[Kostov] Carlos Ghosn is involved
in everything, every decision.

He's involved in design,
he's involved in the PR,

he's involved in the engineering,
in the finance.

He has an agenda
which is full to the brim.

- Quick response, quicker response.
- [passenger] Okay.

[Saikawa] Wasn't sure if Mr. Ghosn's plan

was able to change Nissan at that time.

But a few months later,
that action started showing improvement.

Nissan was getting out of the deep red.

[reporter 1] The man
they call the "cost k*ller"

was sent into a near-bankrupt Nissan
two years ago.

That's when the revolution began.

[Carlos]
After one year, we had incredible results.

My opponents said,
"He tricked the books. This is fake."

[stammers]
"We're gonna see after one year."

And as you know,
the second year came better,

the third year came better,

and then it was... it was over.

Then the image was built,
the recovery was here...

and I became promoted to CEO of Nissan.

Thank you very much.

[interpreter speaks Japanese]

[employees applauding]

[Jones] So he pulled it off
in a pretty dramatic way?

Yeah, completely. Absolutely.

I mean, it not only seemed like
he had the Midas touch, he did.

["(I Want) The Good Life" playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Palmer] When I first went to live
in Japan as a program director for Nissan,

he was at the peak of his popularity.

He couldn't walk in the street.
He was a superhero.

He was a manga hero.

Everybody wanted to know what he was like.

Everybody wanted to know
what the magic was.

Everybody wanted to understand

how he'd managed to turn Nissan around.

At that moment, he could do no wrong.

And to be honest,
we all basked in the reflective glory

of working for Mr. Ghosn.

[music ends]

I think Ghosn enjoyed
his newfound fame in Japan.

He gets the blue ribbon
from the Japanese emperor.

Time magazine calls him

one of the most respected
business executives in the world,

ahead of Bill Gates.

Suddenly, you know, he does dress better.

He, uh...
He starts to care about his image.

His appearance does begin to change.

He has an eye operation.

Before he wore these quite thick glasses.

His suits become maybe a little slimmer.

Ladies and gentlemen,
we have reached a new era.

There was a survey at the time, you know,
asking Japanese women,

you know, which man they would
like to father their children with.

And Carlos Ghosn was right up there.
[chuckles]

In those early days,
he was very much the family man.

You know, his wife, Rita, at that time,
um, and his kids were there, and he was...

- [shutter clicks]
- trying to make it as balanced

as he could.

[shutter clicks]

[Carlos] I was elected Father of the Year.

Uh, wh-which was one of the award
that I like the most,

which, by the way,
surprised a lot my children.

- They... They, uh...
- [shutter clicking]

They said that the father of the year
should be with his kids all the time,

so which obviously
I... [chuckles] ...was not.

But, in a certain way, it...

Being elected Father of the Year in Japan
showed a little bit the emotional bond

that started to be created between me
and the country and with the public.

- [speaks indistinctly] It's a big square.
- [employee] It's a huge...

It's just a big square from a good...
[speaks indistinctly, laughs]

- [employee 2] Well, there's always...
- [sighs]

[Palmer] Ghosn barely ever talked
about anything at a personal level.

He's not your, um, down the pub,
uh, friendly kind of a guy.

I mean,
I think I knew him as well as most,

but to know him, w-wasn't... w-was
to know him, uh, at a work level.

It wasn't to know him, really,
at a personal level.

He wasn't like that at all.

[Lacombe, in French] I think
to really understand Carlos Ghosn

you have to know the whole story.

I am deputy director of
the news magazine L'Obs.

I interviewed Carlos Ghosn frequently.

I have met many CEOs in my career.

Big bosses, French bosses, foreign bosses

but he was always very different.

[speaks French]

There was always
some kind of tension there.

So I started thinking, "What's his story?"

[shutter clicks]

Something might not be right here.

Then I was talking with someone

who has known Ghosn
for a long, long time...

and they said there is a mystery
surrounding his father.

His father had supposedly
spent some time in prison.

And that's all they would tell me.

This was a story that everyone
in Lebanon knew,

but nobody dared to talk
about it with Carlos Ghosn.

When you have this in your life

and you run one of the biggest
companies in the world

you must keep this secret.

You must be afraid
that one day it will come out.

[horns honking]

[reporter 1] Louis Schweitzer
leaves today to his successor,

the fourth largest automotive
group in the world.

- [in English] In French first, you know...
- Okay.

[Schweitzer]
The plan for my succession in 2005

was that he would relinquish
his executive position at Nissan

and become chairman and CEO
of Renault full-time.

Obviously, Schweitzer would have preferred
for me to go directly for Renault

and abandoning Nissan,
but I said I'm not gonna do it.

[speaks indistinctly]

Frankly, I didn't want him to leave.
I told him, you know,

"Louis, w-why don't you take
another mandate?

Let me finish the job in Nissan."

But he was in a hurry
to leave the job of CEO,

uh, and wanted me to... to come back.

So, I decided to go for the two jobs.

[audience applauding]

[Schweitzer] He told me, "Look, uh,

I will only stay on as CEO of Nissan
till I find a good successor."

And quite stupidly, I must say,
I believed him. [chuckles]

[in French] What a fool!

[reporter 2, in English] He's a superstar
in the automobile world,

famed for breathing life back into Nissan.

Now also the new chief executive
of Renault,

- he'll be leading both firms at once.
- [shutter clicks]

[McLain] It was unheard of for one man

to run two companies
of that size simultaneously.

But... to be frank...
Part of his motivation was also ambition.

[Carlos]
You're gonna have one professional life,

use it to the maximum you can

and then life will give you
much more opportunities than you think.

[shutter clicks]

The issue with Ghosn is that he is running
a French and a Japanese company

and obviously making a lot of money.

But you-you have to understand,
culturally in France,

it's just not considered acceptable

to be making huge salaries
the way they do in the US, right?

In the US, if you're running
General Motors, or whatever,

you're making 20 million, 25 million,
other people are making much more.

In France, that doesn't happen.

[reporter 3, in French] Excuse me,
Mr. Ghosn, I have some questions for you.

- Don't you want to talk about your salary?
- [speaks French]

[reporter 3] Mr. Ghosn?

Anything at all?

[Carlos, in English] Obviously, the French
media didn't like the double compensation.

They didn't like the fact that compared
to an average CEO in France,

I was overcompensated.

But for me, it's a question...
Uh, it's a question of fairness.

I mean, my contribution
to each company was very clear.

I committed to results, and I made money.

[sirens wailing]

[Montebourg, in French] When a new
Minister of Economy takes office,

the CEO of Renault comes
to see him straight away.

[both speaking French]

[Montebourg] It's dangerous

because one man's grip on power
always ends badly.

[speaking French]

He never liked it when we spoke
about his salary

or his succession.

He would just lower his eyes
and beat around the bush,

then drop three or four names,

never the right ones.

He had a strategy of presenting
himself as indispensable.

But graveyards are populated
with irreplaceable people.

[in English] At that stage,
he was God, king, queen, prince,

all the power rested with him.

[Montebourg, in French] Ghosn looked like

an Asian dictator

in front of the board.

He was surrounded by "yes men"

when what he needed
was challenge and debate.

But that was sorely lacking.
That's the truth.

[crowd cheering]

[Kostov, in English] Ghosn was essentially
free to do what he wants.

You know... [chuckles, stammers]
there's very little oversight

and he has very few people
challenging him.

And, you know, that's okay,

as long as Nissan's doing okay
and Renault's doing okay.

But then the Financial Crisis hits...

that's a problem.

The worst financial crisis
in modern times,

certainly the largest
financial disaster in decades.

[reporter 1]
Markets plunged as much as 464 points.

[reporter 2]
Lehman Brothers have filed for bankruptcy.

[reporter 3] Traders in Tokyo,

worried about a spreading US recession
and credit turmoil, sent stocks down 3.9%.

[Palmer] 2008 was a huge global crisis,

and it was a disaster
for the car industry as a whole.

It was a car crash,
it was an absolute car crash.

Nissan was about six weeks away
from running out of cash

and almost everybody, including myself,
would buy our own stationery.

I mean, it was that level of,
you put your own money into...

Into basically keeping the... the...
The com... the company going.

[Kostov] Renault had to get a loan
from the government,

Nissan weren't sure how
they were gonna pay payroll.

And you're trying to preserve cash,
and you're trying to survive,

and your share price
is going down the toilet.

For Ghosn, everything at work is on fire.

Already, running two companies
is impossible when its calm waters,

but this is the Financial Crisis,

and he's trying to keep
these two companies afloat.

There was almost always a crisis
in one company or the other.

We just saw him less and less,

and you saw it again
with the tsunami in Japan.

[rumbling]

I'm in my office at Nissan,
and you hear this "buh-boom."

And then, I'm on the 21st floor,
and this building starts to shake.

[clamoring, screaming]

It must have lasted nine minutes.

[alarms blaring]

We're scared to death.
I thought we were done.

[people speaking Japanese]

[in English] A massive earthquake has hit
the northeast of Japan,

triggering a devastating tsunami.

[person wailing]

The first thing I did was
to go send an email to Carlos Ghosn,

'cause he was in Renault.

It was basically,
"We just had this big earthquake,

so many people died.

We better get together quick
to figure out what we're gonna do."

But at the same time,
he's got his other company,

and he's got to lead
that through the Financial Crisis.

[speaking French]

I was in Japan. I stayed in Japan,

as did many of my colleagues
because we were... We felt a...

A bond with the Japanese
that were going through... through hell.

But he didn't come, I think,
for almost ten days.

It showed that, you know,
he wasn't a superhuman.

[shutter clicks]

A lot of mistakes got made.

Both companies craved his attention.

And when it wasn't there, then...
Then basically the cancer started to bite.

Everything just keeps spiraling
out of control, spiraling out of control.

And Ghosn looks like an absentee boss
because he's not even there.

And then...

[shutter clicking]

you looked over the fence and your boss

was seemingly having
this celebrity lifestyle.

[shutter clicking]

And that started to irk.

I was fed up of... of basically
defending Ghosn when, underneath,

I was really starting to resent his style.

I also became aware of the issues
with Rita and the breakup of his marriage,

and it was obvious to everybody that
he wasn't wearing a wedding ring.

I mean, frankly, in my mind,

there was a clear change
in his priorities over that period.

- [people chattering]
- [shutters clicking]

[Carole]
I met Carlos at a gala in New York.

I was on a high because, uh, he was
super charming and super charismatic.

[shutter clicks]

I mean, when he walks into the room,

you feel how powerful he is
in his character and his intelligence,

and, uh... [stammers] ...when he walks
in a room, everyone looks at him.

I... I was, uh, magnetized by her.

I... I... I liked her instantly.

Very joyful person,
very spontaneous, very pretty.

So, for me, it was, "Wow."

I guess this is when the spark
happened between us

and, uh, we started seeing each other.

[Kostov]
Carole is a lot more glamorous than Rita.

She's kind of this tall blonde,
loves to have fun.

She definitely has an aura,
and she likes the finer things in life.

People criticized me, that,
"Since he met her, he's changed.

He's become more superficial."

But maybe it was the phase of his life.

Maybe 'cause when you're happy,
and you're in love,

you wanna do fun things.

[stammers] You change.
It's not all about business.

[Kostov] The party in Versailles,
paid for by Renault and Nissan,

it was meant to be celebrating
the alliance.

But if you look at the guest list,
it is majority friends and family.

There was his lawyers, his kids,

people who he knew from his days
in Lebanon, from his old school.

[shutter clicking]

All of these people there,

essentially not because they had
anything to do with the alliance,

but because they had
a personal or business relationship

with Carlos Ghosn himself.

And it was on his birthday,
which was a bad look.

[people applauding]

[Carlos]
Ladies and gentlemen, and dear friends,

good evening and welcome.

As some of you know,
this month marks the 15th anniversary

of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

While that's not why we are gathered here,

the anniversary did make us
realize the time was right

to thank those
who have helped our alliance

grow and prosper.

- [speaking indistinctly]
- [Kostov] He has a speech saying,

"Thank you, to all of you, for what
you've done to support the alliance."

But actually, what they've done
is just supported Carlos Ghosn.

And so, we get into this problem of,

like, "Where does Carlos Ghosn end?
Where does the alliance start?"

[Schweitzer]
If you celebrate 15 years of the alliance,

it would not seem completely unnatural
to invite the guy who created it.

And this was not the case.

I was not invited.

Therefore, I did not consider it
a celebration of 15 years of the alliance.

[Palmer] There was quite a lot of
resentment in the company.

He was enjoying the fruits of his labor
rather more than he should have been.

[Schweitzer]
Ghosn was no demigod in France,

and having those parties
at Versailles was a mistake.

It was a sign of the risks associated
with having strong personality.

That is the risk
of losing touch... with reality.

[reporter 1] French carmaker, Renault,

has seen its shares rise up at 8%
after reports of merger negotiations

with its Japanese partner, Nissan.

Neither Renault nor Nissan
have commented on the situation.

[McLain] There was always,
from the day Carlos Ghosn became CEO,

a fear within Nissan that eventually
the alliance would become a merger.

But he's always said,
"Mergers don't work in the auto industry.

I don't want a merger."

I cannot make one team

of Japanese and French,

managing a company which would
be neither Japanese nor French.

It doesn't work.

But then what Ghosn is saying changes.

[interviewer]
Will Nissan and Renault be merged?

- Will it look different?
- Um,

- nobody can answer this question.
- Okay.

- Then next question.
- [chuckles] Nobody.

At that point, the Japanese
are completely alarmed that they...

[stammering] ...they cannot trust him.

Nissan-Renault looking
to make their marriage official,

and reports say now
they may officially merge.

[McLain]
There was a group of people that feared

that the merger would erase Nissan
as the Japanese company that it is,

and it would also install Ghosn,
in their telling,

as almost like this pharaoh,
top of the pyramid, ruler for life,

godlike character
that would be not removable in the future.

[shutter clicking]

[Saikawa] As a head of Nissan,
I need to protect the company.

This is my duty.

That was my position.

[people chattering]

[McLain] Ghosn was thinking
about a merger, I'm sure.

But I think bigger than that,
Carlos Ghosn was obsessed

with his standing in the industry.

[Palmer] He wanted the adulation.

- [shutters clicking]
- [reporters chattering]

He wanted very clearly to be, uh,
in control of the...

The biggest car company in the world,
but he also wanted to be paid for it.

[Kostov] I think Ghosn believes that money
is part of your scorecard,

what he calls your "scorecard,"
which is, like, part of your worth, right?

Your self-worth.

And so, if you make lots of money,
then to him, you're worth more.

[Carlos]
I... I have always looked for autonomy,

which means that you don't depend on
other people to conduct your own life.

So, when you say money is important,

you should put it
in this context of autonomy.

Intellectual autonomy, emotional autonomy,
physical autonomy, and financial autonomy.

- [shutters clicking]
- [reporters chattering]

[Kostov] So later, I got access
to the contents of Ghosn's phone,

which were a bit of a Rosetta Stone
in this case.

And in one of his phone notes,

investigators believe that he's
tallying up his wealth across the world.

He has 52 million in Japan,
62 million in Europe,

31.5 million in Switzerland,

39 million in Lebanon,
97 million in America.

And then he writes at
the bottom... [speaks French]

which means,
"Complete through merger to a billion."

[reporter 1] Breaking news.

Nissan's chairman,
Carlos Ghosn has been arrested.

[reporter 2] Carlos Ghosn has been held
in solitary confinement.

We were scared.

They wanted me to turn on Carlos Ghosn.

I think he is a man who committed a crime.

[reporter 3]
Is it half a chance it is a palace coup?

[Passi] Who are you people?

[McLain] I don't think we've ever seen
a scandal like this,

where there are things that were found
that don't pass the smell test.

There was a light at the end
of the tunnel, and I was that light.

My mission was to get him out of there.