oops
So, in addition to the apology, will the trio be getting their jobs back, plus pay for the time they were fired, plus damages, or will they merely have a very easy time with their lawsuit?
Renault security boss arrested as spying claims fall apart
Renault has apologised to the three senior executives from its electric vehicle division who were sacked and accused of spying for China. The carmaker's security boss was arrested as he boarded a plane for West Africa. He is under judicial investigation for alleged organised fraud. Paranoid bosses at Renault have now pledged …
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 11:01 GMT CaptainHook
I'm confused
Was there any attempt at spying or not ?
There was an actual attempt at espionage, but the three guys named were innocent ?
The head of security who made the allegations isn't the spy, but attempted to do a runner with the money intended for the real spy ?
Nobody knows who the real spy is ?
Surely the Head of Security ex-spy who made the intial allegations throwing people off the trail of the real spy and who was caught with the money for the real spy trying to leave the country would be a good candidate ?
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 11:04 GMT smudge
A farce worthy of Feydeau
The BBC report makes it clear what a total mess this is.
I await with interest the explanation of how someone can be caught "red-handed" when they were completely innocent.
I hope the three gentlemen are sufficiently rewarded so that they never have to work again. Because, despite everything, mud sticks, there's no smoke without fire, <insert French cliche here>, and they may find it difficult to get good work again.
Strengthens my resolve never to buy a Renault, even though some of them look quite good.
Paris because it's France, innit?
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 11:30 GMT Robert Carnegie
I think the implication is the security officer is bent (allegedly)
That there is no espionage, there are no spies, no stealing or selling of trade secrets. (Or not more than usual.) And no secret intelligence snitch in Africa. Just a corrupt policeman (all right, private security officer) lining his pocket and smearing probably innocent people.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 13:20 GMT Anonymous Coward
The rentacop took the money (allegedly)
What the French news are saying is that Renault paid 250,000€ to the "informant" that gave the information about the "spying". The security guy is now suspected to have pocketed that money himself while just making up a story.. So he was allegedly not trying to leave empty-handed.
On another news, Mr Ghosn said last night on TF1 that he would give back his last year bonus, and stock options and stuff, the whole 1,600,000€. But he won't resign, as his plan has got support by the board.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 11:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Of course they will
Didn't you read their titles? "Director". Probably with promotion and pay raise. If they were at the bottom of the food chain, they'd be given £100 compensations to treat their families at McDonald's and vouchers to help them find another job, and we'd probably wouldn't have heard about it to start with.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 21:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
I'm not so sure about that
Director job title? I doubt that would help much - the high profile of the incident and public scrutiny is the key to their salvation. I worked for a US computer company with a director job title and I was terminated after false allegations were made. I wasn't told what I was accused of or given the opportunity to defend myself.
The people who made the allegations later got found out and were fired, but I didn't get my job back or any compensation. The company swept it under the carpet to avoid the profound embarrassment to itself and its dickhead CEO. Easy to do when you're ethically challenged and you know the victim doesn't have proof that will stand up in court.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 11:04 GMT Loki23
Take the money or the job?
Either way the 3 people will get their "honour" back.
They will easily get multi-millions in damages and backpay OR they can carry on working there. Hard to imagine they could get both.
So ... cash or keep on working?
If this was a proper spy thriller then it would turn out to be a conspiracy by the 3 people who were sacked to leak anonymous spy drivel to the security chief in order to get themselves fired and then a huge lawsuit payout. :)
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 12:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Wasn't this an episode of Burn Notice?
So the security chief invents an industrial espionage ring, plants evidence including money in Swiss bank accounts, invents an informer, then pockets the payments intended for the informer? Wouldn't it have been easier to just sell secrets to the Chinese?
I think somebody has been reading Graham Greene's "Our Man In Havana". Or perhaps le Carre's "Tailor of Panama". Or indeed anything else written by le Carre since the end of the cold war.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 14:35 GMT Paul RND*1000
What I don't get...
Companies worry about having their secrets, designs, or copyrighted material stolen by the Chinese.
Then they outsource some, or all, of their manufacturing to cheap Chinese labor.
Then their designs or copyrighted material mysteriously get bootlegged at a level of quality comparable to the original goods.
Then they wonder how the hell that just happened.
Well, DUUU-UH. But hey, they only had to pay $1/day/worker so they're WINNING, right?
Idiots.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 15:39 GMT Anonymous Coward
Secrets at Renault?
Question is - what secrets would Renault have that were worth any money?
Most of their modern stuff has been utter drivel; big, lardy and lacking in style, innovation and driver thrills. They're not even that economical.
So it can't be anything juicy from current production models...so what was it?
How to skim the biggest EU subsidy for doing the least amount of profitable farming - now *that's* a secret worth real money.
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Tuesday 15th March 2011 17:08 GMT JaitcH
The carmaker's security boss was arrested as he boarded a plane for West Africa.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The worst possible way to disappear without leaving a trail is by air. You have to positively identify yourself and all police forces have access to the major GDS (Global (ticket) Distribution Systems)..
Ask Nick Leeson ( the infamous trader whose unchecked risk-taking caused the collapse of Barings Bank) or Choy, Hon-Tim (former deputy director of Singapore's PUB who took $14-million in bribes) both caught by trying to 'escape' by plane.
Smarter thing to do would be to drive to Italy or Greece and take a ferry or a regional flight on a small airline (with it's own reservation system) across the Mediterranean.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
