What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 462 221 Innocence
On May 2nd, Guoshanfeng Station opened for business.

This time, it attacked Renault at 3 pm on Sunday, China time, marking the second time this year that it has targeted automakers.

It was a sunny 9 a.m. in Paris, but a short-selling report from one of the world's most well-known short sellers quickly ruined the weekend mood of the parties involved and related parties, forcing them to work overtime or hold meetings.

Renault is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, included in the French benchmark index CAC 40, and classified as a constituent stock of the French equity savings scheme PEA. It has shares held by the French government and is also favored by both French domestic and international funds.

For such a benchmark company in the French automotive industry to be accused of emissions fraud, if true, would undoubtedly be an industry scandal and cause stock market turmoil.

The Paris Stock Exchange is closed on Sunday, and because Saturday is Labor Day, it has scheduled a compensatory holiday on Monday. The stock market will not open until Tuesday, so everyone has enough time to find out the truth of the matter.

In terms of timing, the mountain pass always seems to be very considerate.

The media had already noticed this habit and, after analysis, believed that it was precisely because of the strong confidence in the facts of the target that the mountain peak avoided launching surprise attacks and using vague information to cause panic, instead relying solely on facts.

As for what the facts are this time...

As the target of the mountain attack, no one reacted faster than Renault.

It's as if a report was just released a second ago, and the next second there was an official response from Renault – Renault is innocent!
Is there anyone more representative of the company than the chairman of the board?
Ghosn not only responded promptly and forcefully, but also gave his feedback live on Japanese television, which was quickly circulated to everyone along with the short-selling report from Guoshanfeng.

—One generation passes away, another comes, but deception endures.

Renault is innocent!
Judging from the text that quickly appeared on the internet, it seemed like Ghosn was confidently arguing back.

However, as the person involved, Ghosn himself was already somewhat regretting saying those words while sitting in the car on his way back to the company.

You shouldn't respond, you shouldn't respond at all...

Such a hasty response may contain some inappropriate aspects.

Ghosn's mind was in turmoil. After forcing himself to calm down, he felt a strange nausea when thinking about the sudden attack.

Soon, the head of the world’s largest auto alliance returned to his office.

In a short while, the phone received a number of calls, and there were also transoceanic calls from the office landline. The secretary even received interview requests from media outlets in Paris, Berlin, New York, and even Tokyo.

Ghosn ignored this and simply ordered his secretary and vice president to leave the office. He then issued an order that no one, from top to bottom, could give interviews or disclose any information to the outside world, and he pushed away all microphones from the outside.

The secretary left quickly without daring to utter a sound.

As he was about to leave the office, Nissan's Vice President Tsuna Murayama couldn't help but ask, "Ghosn, does Renault have emissions problems?"

Ghosn pointed impatiently to the door.

Murayama Tsuna lowered his gaze, but still pressed on, "Is Renault truly innocent?"

Ghosn, who didn't speak Japanese, shouted in fluent and furious voice, "Baka!"

He glared at Murayama Tsuna and pointed at the door again.

Murayama Tsuna knew that the head of the company did not speak Japanese. Although he was the first foreigner to become the top leader of a Japanese automobile company, after Ghosn took over Nissan, he strongly demanded that Nissan's working language be changed from Japanese to English. However... at this moment, there was a furious insult.

He felt humiliated but dared not persist, and turned to leave the office.

Outside, Mitsubishi Vice President Toyotomi Rui was waiting. Upon seeing Murayama Tsuna, he immediately cast an inquiring glance his way.

Murayama Tsuna shook his head and remained silent.

"Do you think there's anything wrong with Renault?" Toyotomi Rui asked.

Murayama Tsuna's eyes flickered, and after a moment of contemplation, he replied, "Perhaps not."

Toyotomi Rui's eyes flickered at this subtle reply.

He and Murayama Tsuna are old friends who worked together at Nissan. Now, after Mitsubishi was acquired, they reunited at Auto Union and quickly came together.

However, Mitsubishi was not as willing to be led by Ghosn as Nissan was. It was only after being attacked by Ghosn and under pressure and lobbying from public opinion that they were forced to unite.

If it were complete subjugation, that would be fine, but...

To be honest, even though Nissan was saved by Ghosn and he led the company for so many years, there are still some lingering emotions within the company.

This year in particular, the internal voices within Nissan have become more pronounced.

In February, France passed the Florange Law, the core of which grants long-term shareholders dual voting rights, with the aim of strengthening the government’s control over strategic industries.

This bill directly strengthens the French government's influence within the Renault-Nissan alliance, meaning that Nissan vehicles will be more susceptible to French government intervention.

Ghosn rose to prominence at Renault, so there's no doubt he'd have some biases.

He was hailed as the creator of the "Ghosn miracle" in the public eye, giving interviews, writing books, being sought after, talking about philosophy, and appearing on TV shows, but his success was based on the destruction of Japanese tradition.

Upon taking office, Ghosn reduced the number of parts suppliers by half and sold off all non-automotive related businesses. In order to quickly generate profits, he laid off 2.1 Nissan employees, which undoubtedly went against the unspoken rule of lifetime employment in Japan.

When Toyotomi Eiji and Murayama Tsuna, old friends, reunited, they often drank together. He once heard the other party drunkenly lament, "Ghosn's glory was built on the broken lives of tens of thousands of ordinary Japanese families!"

Not only are there pent-up grievances from the past, but there are also whispers about profit distribution within the automotive alliance. Renault, which is not as strong as Nissan, is getting more profits, which is hard to call fair.

Toyotomi Ei walked beside Murayama Tsuna and followed him into the office.

Murayama Tsuna didn't ask his old friend why he had followed him in; he simply looked at him with fiery eyes.

Toyotomi Rui's Adam's apple bobbed as he mentioned a piece of recent news that everyone already knew: "I've heard that France is still planning to increase its stake in Nissan."

Instead of discussing this highly probable possibility, Murayama Tsuna cut straight to the point and asked, "What do you want to do?"

“It used to be the Renault-Nissan Alliance, but now it’s the Renault-Mitsubishi-Nissan Alliance. Why should a Frenchman lead such an alliance that owns two well-known Japanese companies?” Toyotomi Rui lowered his voice. “Do you think the Renault scandal is true?” Without waiting for an answer, he made his own assumption: “If Guo Shanfeng is confident, I have made a preliminary estimate based on the five models listed in its short-selling report. This could involve hundreds of thousands of vehicles in sales. If Guo Shanfeng’s statistics are not comprehensive enough, the actual number of vehicles affected could exceed one million.”

"This is a huge scandal, and someone must be held accountable for such a scandal!"

"How can someone who creates scandals still be in charge of the three auto alliances?"

Toyotomi Rui expressed his thoughts.

He was the vice president of Mitsubishi and was very dissatisfied with Ghosn's denigration of Mitsubishi when he shorted the company. He felt that such a Frenchman did not have the traditional Japanese spirit at all, and that he might have even colluded with the company to carry out a forced takeover.

Of course, this idea that existed in his mind may be proven false today.

If Ghosn had connections with Over Peak, Over Peak probably wouldn't have launched an attack like today. However... it's hard to say. Perhaps the last contact made Over Peak notice this Auto Alliance.

Murayama Tsuna listened to his old friend's voice and remained silent for a long time.

Seeing that he remained silent, Toyotomi Ryū had no choice but to take the initiative and ask, "Do you really want someone like him to continue to be so powerful?"

“That’s not the problem.” Murayama Tsuna shook his head and said slowly, “Nissan may also be affected.”

Toyotomi Rui couldn't help but widen his eyes: "Nissan is also falsifying data?"

“I don’t know,” Murayama said carefully. “Ghosn trusts his people more, but in any case, this matter may not only affect Renault, but also Nissan’s reputation. Our two companies have previously promoted a lot of common technologies.”

On the contrary, Mitsubishi, having just joined the alliance, will not be affected.

However, Mitsubishi had already been attacked by the mountain peaks.

Toyotomi Rui took two steps closer and pressed, "How much exactly did Nissan do? If Nissan also did it, do you think Ghosn wouldn't conduct an investigation? Ghosn is the chairman of the alliance; if Nissan also has problems, he can take all the blame!"

Thinking about the rumors he had heard, Murayama Tsuna said, "Even if Nissan has problems, there shouldn't be many. One thing I know is that Renault cut the engine development budget for the K9K by 12%, which led to a simplification of the emissions system. We made requests for technical improvements, but they were ignored."

Toyotomi Yuki felt a little relieved and continued to suggest, "The root of the problem lies with Renault. In that case, we should expel evil leaders like Ghosn. We should take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity given to us by the mountain!"

Murayama Tsuna seemed to hear the sect leader's "Baka!" again in his ears, and after a moment of hesitation, he nodded.

Toyotomi Rui breathed a sigh of relief. Ghosn could use the mountain pass to pressure Mitsubishi, and Mitsubishi could use the mountain pass to overthrow Ghosn!
Ghosn, in his office, was completely unaware that an internal upheaval was brewing nearby.

He connected to the online meeting with Renault and sensed the lifelessness of the French executives, which made him even more irritable.

"What should we do? How can we mitigate the impact? Can we apply for a trading halt?" Ghosn asked, recalling Mitsubishi's previous experience with Mountain Peak, where a temporary trading halt was used to absorb the impact of short selling.

“No, no, no, we cannot apply.” Director Black rejected the application repeatedly. “Companies can only apply if there are major undisclosed matters, financial fraud investigations, or mergers and acquisitions. Now, trying to suspend trading and delay because of emissions issues could be considered malicious evasion of market supervision, which is explicitly prohibited by MAR.”

The EU's MAR regulations prohibit suspension applications for the purpose of market manipulation. Renault's application under these circumstances is likely to trigger an investigation by the French AMF.

Ghosn angrily retorted, "We are a €190 billion company! We've been maliciously shorted! Are the exchanges going to investigate us?! We're a French company!"

Blake lowered his voice slightly: "If the issue is proven to involve market manipulation, it could lead to criminal charges against us personally."

Ghosn's voice suddenly caught in his throat.

In this situation... if he were to actually take responsibility, he, as the chairman, would likely face the biggest trouble of all.

"Why is Over Peak investigating our vehicles?" Ghosn's voice broke the silence. "The company needs to issue a statement, needs... needs to request more formal testing!"

Vice President Jimmy then agreed, saying, "Yes, the mountain-climbing test is illegal; it's an unauthorized test. We can't make a statement. We should let the media raise questions, and we should have the testing agency conduct a legitimate test that wasn't led by us!"

The results of illegal testing should not be taken seriously; legal testing will not detect any problems!

Although I was hoping for the best, what if I managed to get away with it?

Hasn't Renault been muddling through all these years?
However, in any case, the company cannot make a statement; the more statements are made, the more troublesome it becomes.

Ghosn paused for a moment, then said, "I received the news while giving an interview to the Japanese media. I publicly stated that Renault was innocent..."

The executives in the online meeting were immediately greeted by reports of the attack on the mountain peak, and only then did they realize that the leader had reached a standoff, which immediately alarmed them.

Director Blake retorted, "How can you say we're innocent?!"

Vice President Jimmy also chided, "Don't you know whether Renault is innocent or not?"

Ghosn, overwhelmed by the barrage of accusations, felt both exasperated and innocent. He finally growled, "It wasn't me! The company was just following standard procedure!"

As he shouted this, he received the number of a French political figure on his phone, so he had no choice but to answer.

The online meeting was temporarily suspended, with Renault hoping to get away with it. However, Vice President Jimmy, Director Black, and others immediately called their private lawyers after the meeting to inquire about the potential impact of the incident on them personally.

If Renault truly cannot escape unscathed, are there any ways to mitigate the personal impact?
For example, could someone take the blame for this?

Jimmy and Blake actively explored the possibilities in this direction and quickly arranged a time and place to meet and discuss it.

In addition, the illegal testing and unlicensed short selling by Guoshanfeng should not be allowed to go unpunished. It is simply lawless.

However, whether it was Renault's lucky escape, a spontaneous overturning, or a search for the person primarily responsible, the media that quickly followed up on this matter seemed to have a biased stance, producing dramatic headlines or attitudes.

How many days can Renault's innocence last?

Don't try to prove your innocence in front of a mountain peak.

—The mountain peak has arrived, and Renault's innocence is gone.

(End of this chapter)