Nissan’s senior executive spied by CEO in connection with internal feud, reveals probe

New Delhi, 29th June 2023: The preliminary findings of an inquiry into spying it has been revealed, Nissan placed a video surveillance system at the house of former executive Ashwani Gupta so the automaker’s internal security team could monitor him, according to two people with knowledge of the report.

According to Reuters, Nissan has been investigating a claim that Chief Executive Makoto Uchida conducted surveillance on the carmaker’s second-in-command in order to gain leverage to remove him from the company due to Gupta’s opposition to some terms in a new partnership agreement with Renault.

Two persons stated that Nissan directors were briefed on the preliminary findings of the investigation into the monitoring claim by US law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell at a board meeting on June 20 at the company’s Yokohama headquarters.

According to the preliminary study, Nissan put two sets of security cameras at the entrance to Gupta’s house in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighbourhood.

According to the two witnesses, the first system was set up for usage by a private security business, while the second system was set up for access by Nissan’s internal security team to monitor Gupta.

According to the two sources, the study from the US law firm did not conclude if Nissan’s use of cameras to monitor Gupta was illegal, nor did it specify whether Gupta was made aware of the monitoring.

According to Japanese law, a company can monitor communications on corporate phones and computers and investigate an employee’s conduct outside of work to protect its business interests, according to Akira Takeuchi, a lawyer and certified fraud examiner in Tokyo, who stressed that he was speaking in general and not specifically about Nissan.

The preliminary results provided to the board did not provide an answer to senior adviser Hari Nada’s claim in a letter to Nissan’s independent directors that Uchida was involved in the spying.

Nissan shareholders voted ten directors, including Uchida, to the board on Tuesday. Gupta attended the meeting on his final day at Nissan.

When a shareholder asked Gupta about his tenure at Nissan, Uchida responded on his behalf, saying the CEO had made significant contributions to projects such as the automaker’s strategy plan.