Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s defense team outside of Japan has shared a statement with local media questioning the car manufacturer’s motives in the ex-CEO’s investigation. His lawyers’ statement questioned the credibility of Nissan’s claim that it conducted “a robust, thorough internal investigation” “Rather, the facts demonstrate that investigation was never about finding the truth; it was initiated and carried out for the specific, predetermined purpose of taking down Carlos Ghosn to prevent him from further integrating Nissan and Renault, which threatened the independence of Nissan, one of Japan’s iconic, flagship companies,” the statement continued. And he said an executive member of Nissan was in charge of putting over this message. “No reputable company continues to employ as a senior trusted executive, an individual who pled guilty to a crime, much less permit that individual to conduct the investigation of the very conduct in which he was directly involved.” The statement went on to question the independence of the investigation and added: “Although the supposedly ‘robust, thorough internal investigation’ purportedly found evidence of wrongdoing by Carlos Ghosn, it failed to discover evidence of Saikawa’s wrongdoing, which surfaced only after statements by Greg Kelly.” The statement added that “Nissan never once sought to interview Carlos Ghosn concerning the matters under investigation, and even to this date has failed to share with Ghosn or the public the reports of the investigation or the evidence against him it purported to find.” Ghosn is set to hold a press conference with about 50 media organizations Wednesday afternoon in Beirut. Arab News contacted Nissan and asked for a response to Ghosn’s claims, and was referred to a statement it published the day before his lawyers spoke out. The Nissan statement concluded: “The company will continue to take appropriate legal action to hold Ghosn accountable for the harm that his misconduct has caused to Nissan.”