Former Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, still on the run, skips Paris trial

Former French culture minister Rachida Dati will go on trial Wednesday for corruption charges related to her dealings with Renault-Nissan, months after her electoral defeat in the Paris mayoral race. Dati, 60, will stand trial alongside fugitive former Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who will be tried in absentia.

Dati, once a prominent figure on the French right, resigned as culture minister in February to focus on the mayoral race. She lost the election in March to Socialist rival Emmanuel Gregoire. In 2019, she was under investigation for allegedly lobbying Renault-Nissan while serving as an MEP, following her tenure as justice minister from 2007 to 2009.

In 2021, Dati was charged with corruption and influence peddling over her relationship with Ghosn, specifically for accepting €900,000 in lawyer fees from a Netherlands-based Renault-Nissan subsidiary. She maintains her innocence, asserting that she worked exclusively as a lawyer for the subsidiary. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to €450,000, along with a potential five-year ban from public office.

Dati's legal team argues the charges stem from an artificial intellectual construct devised by prosecutors. Prosecutors, however, claim a legal services contract signed in 2009, under which Dati was paid €300,000 annually, was used to disguise lobbying work. During a search of Renault's headquarters in 2019 during Ghosn's arrest, investigators obtained this contract.