JAPANESE prosecutors formally charged Carlos Ghosn with financial misconduct for under-reporting his salary and also served a fresh warrant on separate allegations, local media reported yesterday, meaning the tycoon will likely spend Christmas in a cell.

Former Nissan chairman Ghosn, 64, has been in detention since his Nov. 19 arrest on suspicion of under-declaring his income by some 5 billion yen (US$44 million) between 2010 and 2015.

Authorities then re-arrested him yesterday over separate allegations that he also under-reported his income by a further four billion over the past three years.

Under Japanese law, suspects can be re-arrested several times for different allegations, allowing prosecutors to question them for prolonged periods — a system that has drawn criticism internationally.

Yesterday was the final day prosecutors could hold Ghosn and close aide Greg Kelly before either charging or re-arresting them, and a further arrest could allow them another 22 days of questioning.

In addition to charges against Ghosn, prosecutors also indicted Kelly and Nissan itself, according to local media, as the company submitted the official documents that under-reported the income.

Ghosn denies the charges and is in a “combative” frame of mind, according to sources at Renault, the company he still formally leads — even if the French car giant has appointed an interim chairman.

The Japanese firms in the three-way alliance with Renault — Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors — have both sacked the Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian as chairman.

The millionaire auto sector star, who attracted some criticism for a perceived lavish lifestyle, is now alone in a spartan cell in a Tokyo detention center, in a tiny room measuring just three tatami mats — around five square meters.

He has reportedly told embassy visitors he is being treated well but has complained of the cold, with yesterday’s temperature in the Japanese capital hovering around five degrees Celsius.

He spends his time reading books and news reports and is said to be unhappy about the rice-based food.

According to local news agency Kyodo, he has admitted signing documents to defer part of his salary until after retirement but said this amount did not need to be declared as it has not yet been definitively fixed. A source close to the investigation has said Ghosn and Kelly allegedly put the system in place after a new law came in obliging the highest-paid members of the firm to declare their salary. Ghosn is suspected of deferring part of his pay to avoid criticism from staff and shareholders that his salary was too generous. (SD-Agencies)