French prosecutors have issued an international arrest warrant against the businessman accused of corruption, Carlos Ghosn, who fled Japan in 2019 to Lebanon.
The prosecutor's office in the Nanterre suburb of Paris said on Friday that it issued an arrest warrant against the former president of Nissan and Renault and four other people based on an investigation opened in 2019 into money laundering and misuse of company assets.

The prosecutors are investigating millions of dollars in suspicious payments between the Renault-Nissan alliance and Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), a car distribution company in Amman.

The former president of the Nissan-Renault alliance fled to Lebanon in 2019 while released on bail facing financial misconduct charges in Japan. He denies any wrongdoing.

Ghosn said he learned of the new warrant on Friday through the media, noting that he is prohibited from leaving Lebanon in any case.

He told French BFMTV, "I am ready to defend myself." He repeatedly insisted that he did not receive any money from the Omani distributor and that "there was no embezzlement."

In response to a question about the possibility of a crisis between France and Lebanon, Ghosn said: "I don't think so. I believe there should be an understanding between the two countries."

He said French and Japanese judicial authorities must cooperate with Lebanese authorities and send the cases to Beirut, and the Lebanese judiciary can determine if there was any wrongdoing. Otherwise, there will be a trial in France in absentia.

The Nanterre prosecutor's office described this warrant as the next step in the ongoing investigation, one of two separate cases involving Ghosn in France.

In an interview last year with the Associated Press, Ghosn was confident, lively, and determined to fight to restore his reputation.

A statement sent by the public relations team to the Associated Press on Friday described the French arrest warrant as "surprising," noting that it is ineffective because Ghosn "is subject to a judicial ban on leaving Lebanese territory."