The Wall Street Journal (Paris) - Patrick Pélata resigned as Renault SA's chief operating officer Monday, as the French car maker attempted to close the book on an embarrassing episode in which it falsely accused and wrongfully fired three senior managers for alleged corporate espionage.
With his resignation, Mr. Pélata, second in command to Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, bore the brunt of the blame for the affair, even though he won't leave the company altogether.
The 55-year-old Mr. Pélata, who has worked closely with Mr. Ghosn for more than a decade, will take a post at the alliance that coordinates Renault's operations with those of Japanese partner Nissan Motor Co.
At a special board meeting Monday, Renault also dismissed three officers working in the company's security service, as well as three executives in its human resources and legal departments.
"This extraordinary board meeting turns a painful page in the history of Renault," Mr. Ghosn said in a statement. The executive has said he would give up his yearly bonus at Renault as a result of the scandal.
There has been little suggestion that the 57-year-old Mr. Ghosn should step down, as he is widely considered too valuable to the company and its alliance with Nissan.
A statement issued by Renault at the end of Monday's meeting gave some details of the audit committee's findings on the bizarre saga that started last year, and which still hasn't been cleared up by French judicial investigators.
Top Renault executives received an anonymous letter in August that accused Michel Balthazard—head of advanced projects, such as Renault's critical electric-vehicle program—and others at the company of selling strategic secrets. Officials in Renault's internal-security department later said that they had uncovered suspicious bank accounts, and alleged that Mr. Balthazard and two colleagues received bribes.
The three senior managers were fired in early January, and Messrs. Ghosn and Pélata told the media that they had evidence that the three had taken money in return for divulging aspects of Renault's business model for electric cars.
The three fired managers declared their innocence from the beginning and, in March, the Paris state prosecutor said the case was probably not one of espionage, raising the possibility of a fraud attempt. Mr. Ghosn apologized publicly to the three fired managers.
Mr. Pélata offered to resign at the time, but Mr. Ghosn didn't accept his offer.
A week later, the Paris prosecutor put Dominique Gevrey, an employee in Renault's security department, under investigation for possible fraud. Mr. Gevrey's lawyer has said his client had Renault money in various overseas bank accounts, but that the funds were destined to pay informants who helped him resolve cases of security breaches.
The board's audit committee listed a series of missteps by Renault after it received the anonymous espionage tip. Among them, according to a company statement, was that the security department's investigation was deliberately hidden from Renault's board and audit committee. The audit committee also said it had been a mistake for Renault to pay out €200,000 ($290,000) to little-known firms for "imprecise purposes" in connection with the investigation into the supposed espionage.
The audit committee added that the three Renault managers accused of spying had been fired without having had a chance to respond to the allegations.
The three managers—Mr. Balthazard; Bertrand Rochette, his deputy; and another electric-vehicle project manager, Matthieu Tenebaum—have been negotiating compensation with Renault. The company said Monday that it had reached "an agreement in principle" with each of the three, but didn't provide specifics.
Lawyers for the three men wouldn't say how much they had sought. Mr. Balthazard's lawyer, Xavier Thouvenin, said last week that he was basing discussions on the earnings his client would lose by not working at Renault. Mr. Balthazard, who was making some €300,000 a year, including bonuses, was about six years from retirement, and his pension would have been affected by his pay during his remaining years at Renault, said Mr. Thouvenin.
Renault said Monday that it would reinstate another manager fired under similar circumstances in 2009. Philippe Clogenson, a former marketing director, said he was dismissed after being accused of taking bribes through a secret bank account, an accusation that he said he didn't understand. He had accepted a settlement from the company, but he revived his case after news broke this year of the false accusations of espionage.
Mr. Clogenson will return to work at Renault May 2 as director of business development at Renault Consulting, the company's consulting arm.
Messrs. Pélata and Ghosn have had a long association. They studied in the same year at France's elite École Polytechnique, where Mr. Pélata was known for his activism in the union of communist students. Mr. Pélata's career at Renault took off after Mr. Ghosn's arrival at the company in 1996.After Renault bought 40% of the then-ailing Nissan, Mr. Ghosn went to Japan to run the company in 1999. He took Mr. Pélata with him as part of a group of experts, and Mr. Pélata won a place on Nissan's executive committee. When Mr. Ghosn was made head of Renault in 2005, Mr. Pélata returned to France. He was named chief operating officer during the financial crisis of 2008, taking charge of day-to-day operations to let Mr. Ghosn focus on strategy.
