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Jan. 24 (UPI) -- French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday jailed Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has resigned from the post as he faces criminal charges in Japan. Ghosn, who was also chairman of Nissan until his arrest in November, has been jailed for weeks on charges he under-reported his salary by $46 million between 2010 and 2015.
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"Carlos Ghosn just resigned last night," Le Maire told Bloomberg Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where he assuring a continued alliance between the French automaker and Nissan. "Now it's time to define and put a new governance in place.
"What is the most important thing is to prepare the future of Renault and the future of the alliance."
Renault is considering deputy CEO Thierry Bollore as its new chief executive and Michelin CEO Jean-Dominique Senard as board chairman.
Le Marie said the Renault-Nissan alliance will survive the Ghosn scandal.
"It's up to the new chairman to make all the necessary decisions to strengthen the alliance," he said.
This month, the 64-year-old Ghosn was indicted on new charges in Tokyo that say he transferred $17 million in personal investment losses to Nissan in 2008. He's also accused of understating his salary by $37 million between 2015 and last year.
Prosecutors said Ghosn will likely stay in jail until his trial begins. The legal proceedings could last as long as six months. Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, accused of helping Ghosn under-report his salary, was released on bail last month.
