Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn said that "conspiracy" by "a few executives" at Nissan lies behind his arrest for alleged financial misconduct, in a video message released by his lawyers Tuesday.

Ghosn, wearing a black jacket and a white shirt with his hands clasped in front, asserted his innocence on all of his "biased" charges of financial misconduct in the message, which was recorded while he was released on bail and shortly before his rearrest Thursday over fresh allegations.

(Ghosn's video message)
[Supplied photo]

"I'm talking here about a few executives who, obviously for their own interest and for their own selfish fears, are creating a lot of value destruction," the 65-year-old Ghosn said in the message lasting more than seven minutes.

"We're talking about people who really played a very dirty game into what's happening," he said. Before the latest arrest, he had tweeted he would hold a news conference on Thursday "to tell the truth about what's happening."

Since his arrest in November, Ghosn has lost the chairmanship posts at Nissan and at its partners Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. He also resigned as CEO of Renault.

On Monday, Nissan removed him from his final remaining post as a board member, putting an official end to his nearly two decades of leadership.

His arrest came as a result of a plea bargain deal struck between Nissan executives and prosecutors. The automaker has also launched an internal investigation over his alleged use of company assets and funds for personal purposes.

"This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is about backstabbing, that is what we're talking about," Ghosn said, noting that the "few executives" at Nissan felt threatened about the autonomy of the company due to a possible convergence or merger with Renault.

Full video (Supplied by Ghosn's lawyers)

Ghosn, who was credited with saving Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s and building one of the world's largest auto groups, also expressed worries about the future of the company, whose sales have been sagging and business outlooks downgraded.

"I don't think there is any vision for the alliance being built. Frankly, sitting down around the table, being consensual about decisions, this is not a vision in an industry which is as competitive as the current industry," Ghosn said.

In a press conference where the video message was shown, one of Ghosn's lawyers, Junichiro Hironaka, said the defense team removed the names of Nissan executives Ghosn mentioned from the footage. Ghosn agreed to cut that part of his statement, Hironaka said.

Prosecutors last week served a fourth arrest warrant on Ghosn in connection with the misuse of Nissan money paid to an Omani distributor, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles. Part of the money was channeled to a company run by Ghosn's wife Carole.

Carole Ghosn, who had her Lebanese passport, personal computer and mobile phone taken by Japanese prosecutors at the time of Ghosn's latest arrest, has left Japan but has agreed to pre-trial questioning by prosecutors, Hironaka said.

"There were no legitimate reasons for the confiscation at a time when (Carole) was not even a suspect. The way they treated her was also inhumane," Hironaka said.

Hironaka said the defense team will file an appeal with the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the Tokyo District Court's decision to detain Ghosn.

"My big hope, my biggest wish is to have a fair trial," Ghosn said.

Full text of Ghosn's video message

The following is the full text of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn's video message released on Tuesday:

If you are listening to me through this video today, it means that I was not able to make the press conference that I plan for April 11.

But I wanted to tell you the essence of the message that I wanted to develop on April 11 and hopefully answer so many questions that I'm sure you have on your mind.

The first message is, I'm innocent. It's not new, you have heard it from me in January, and I repeat it today. I'm innocent of all the charges that have been brought against me, and I'm also innocent of all the accusations that came around these charges that are all biased, taken out of context, twisted in a way to paint a personage of greed, and a personage of dictatorship.

Let's talk about the charges. The FIEA (Financial Instruments and Exchange Act), the contract with Shinsei Bank, and the compensation we paid to Juffali. I remain on the same position. I spent 108 days in prison because I have always been consistent with this position that I was innocent of all the charges.

The second message that I want to send you is the fact that I love Japan and I love Nissan. Nobody spends 20 years in a country, nobody works 20 years in the leadership of a company without love and without attachment and without engagement, particularly when these years have been marked by so many accomplishments and results.

I came to Japan in 1999, not by calculation. I came to Japan in 1999 because I was fascinated by the country and I was fascinated by the challenge of reviving Nissan. You know very well that I committed since the beginning of my career to the success of the Nissan revival plan, and thanks to the hard work of hundreds of thousands people working in Nissan, and particularly the Japanese people working in Nissan, we have been successful.

My love for Japan and my love for Nissan is untainted today. After all the ordeals I've been through, I want you to know that, I want you to be convinced of that.

We've done many things in Nissan that I'm proud of. We have also contributed to the economy of Japan, to the development of the management in Japan. All of the things will remain as great memories and great achievements that I'm sure, after all these last months, in a certain way people will look at them with more fairness and more objectivity.

The third point I want tell you is that this is a conspiracy. This is not about specific events, this is not about greed, this is not about dictatorship. This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is about backstabbing, that is what we're talking about.

Why has this happened? There was first a fear that the next step of the alliance, in terms of convergence and in terms of moving towards a merger, would in a certain ways threaten some people or eventually threaten the autonomy of Nissan, which by the way has never been threatened for the last 19 years when the alliance was created.

I've been the fiercest defender of the autonomy of Nissan and I've made it very clear that no matter what the steps are in the future, this would continue. But this autonomy must be based on performance. Nobody gets autonomy for the sake of autonomy, people get autonomy because they can be more performative with autonomy and that was where the fear came, because the performance of Nissan is not good. It has degraded a lot. Three profit warnings in a couple of years, many scandals, not the fact that bad things happen at the level of the company, but the fact that when you react to the bad things happening at your company, you must be trusted, and in this case and many cases, it could not be trusted because the company said problems were fixed where they were not fixed.

This is where we had problem with actual management of the company. These people are known. I have a lot of respect for Nissan employees. I'm talking here about a few executives who, obviously for their own interest and for their own selfish fears, are creating a lot of value destruction. Names: you know them. We're talking about people who really played a very dirty game into what's happening. But hopefully the truth will happen and the facts will happen.

But at the end of the day, during all this period, I suffered not only because of my case, but who was taking care of Nissan? Who was taking care of the brand? Who was defending corporate value? Who was defending shareholder interest? When you look at the decline of the share, when you look at the absolutely mediocre performance of the company where people are proud to say "we're not going to do this, we're not going to do that," but at the same time, they don't tell you what we're going to do, what is the vision for the future? What is the vision to enhance the performance of Nissan? What is the vision to enhance the alliance into the future?

This becomes very sad, and obviously for someone like me, it's sickening. For somebody who has dedicated 19, 20 years to do the contrary, which is to create the corporate value, enhance the brand, seeing the lack-ism and lack of attention is very difficult to take.

I'm worried. I'm worried because obviously the performance of Nissan is declining, but also I'm worried because I don't think there is any vision for the alliance being built. Frankly, sitting down around the table, being consensual about decisions, this is not a vision in an industry which is as competitive as the current industry. You need to show the future, you need to just make sure about what our role is in the future. You need to make sure that from time to time leadership is exercised, and leadership means we do what's good for the company, not what we're capable to agree on.

This is not dictatorship, this is leadership, it's exercising a company. For people who say there are only two options, consensus or dictatorship, that means they don't know what leadership is about, and this is very sad. At the head of an organization as complex and as large as the alliance can be or as Nissan can be.

Finally what I would like to say is my big hope, my biggest wish is to have a fair trial. I am privileged to have three competent lawyers around me who are going to defend the case, but they don't share with me a lot of serenity about the fairness of the trial. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not competent in this matter, but I will leave it to them to explain to you what specific conditions are required to ensure a fair trial that I can be hopefully vindicated.

Thank you for your attention and I'm sorry I was not able to share more with you and respond to many questions you have on your mind, but hopefully we'll do it at a certain point in time.