Ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn jumps bail & house arrest in Japan for corruption; Escapes to Lebanon

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Japan is looking like a joke in these global streets, so they gotta either get their Russia poisoning game up Or get returned Japans' citizen imprisoned in Lebanon
 

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businessinsider.com
Interpol issues a warrant for Carlos Ghosn's arrest in Lebanon after his bizarre escape from Japan
Samia Nakhoul and Kiyoshi Takenaka, Reuters
4-5 minutes
  • Interpol, the global police organization, issued a warrant for Carlos Ghosn's arrest following his escape from Japan over the New Year's holiday.
  • The former auto executive has become an international fugitive and is facing numerous criminal allegations by Japanese authorities.
  • It's not clear how he made it to Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. Reports suggest he travelled through Turkey. Ghosn has French, Brazilian, and French citizenship.
  • Follow more of Ghosn's puzzling escape here.
Lebanon received an Interpol arrest warrant on Thursday for fugitive former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, while Turkey launched an investigation into his daring escape from Japan.

Ghosn has become an international fugitive after he revealed on Tuesday he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan.

The Interpol red notice, which calls on authorities to arrest a wanted person, was received by Lebanon's internal security forces and has yet to be referred to the judiciary, a judicial source told Reuters,

Lebanese government officials could not immediately be reached to say what - if any - action would be taken.

In past cases, where Lebanon has received red notices for Lebanese citizens resident in the country, the suspects have not been detained but their passports have been confiscated and bail has been set, the judicial source said.

Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, was smuggled out of Tokyo by a private security company, a plan that was in the works for three months and involved transit through Turkey, Reuters has reported.

Turkish police on Thursday detained seven people, including four pilots, as part of an investigation into Ghosn's passage through the country, a police spokeswoman said.

She said the other detainees were two airport ground staff and one cargo worker and all seven were expected to give statements in court on Thursday.

Flight tracking data suggests Ghosn used two different planes to fly to Istanbul and then to Lebanon.

Sources close to Ghosn said he decided to flee Japan after learning that the second of his two trials had been delayed until April 2021 and also because he had not been allowed to speak to his wife as part of strict bail conditions.

Lebanon has no extradition agreement with Japan and Ghosn enjoys widespread support in the country of his childhood, where he holds extensive investments in banking and real estate.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Thursday Japanese authorities allowed Ghosn to carry a spare French passport in a locked case while out on bail, potentially shedding some light on how he managed to escape despite having passports held by Japanese lawyers.

No one was immediately available for comment at the office of Ghosn's lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, or at the French embassy in Tokyo, or at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.


Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2020. Follow Reuters on Twitter.
 

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washingtonpost.com
Turkey detains seven people over escaped Nissan executive Ghosn’s ‘illegal’ transit through Istanbul
Simon Denyer
9-11 minutes
TOKYO — Turkish police detained seven people Thursday, including four pilots, on suspicion of having helped former Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn escape Japan and transit through Istanbul on his way to Lebanon, Turkey's state news agency reported.

An investigation has been launched into Ghosn's "illegal arrival" in Turkey after he escaped house arrest in Japan, according to the Anadolu news agency.

The four pilots were believed to have traveled on the private jet that brought Ghosn from Japan on his way to Beirut. Two employees of a private ground handling company and the operations manager of a private cargo company were also detained.

Turkey has close relations with Japan, while Japanese businesses are significant investors in the country, meaning that Ankara may have been keen to help the Japanese government figure out how Ghosn made it halfway across the world to Lebanon.

Anadolu said Ghosn left Osaka on Sunday at 11 p.m. and flew to Istanbul's Ataturk airport. The flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that a Bombardier Global Express jet left Osaka's Kansai airport at 11:15 p.m. and arrived in Istanbul at 5:15 a.m. Monday. A separate plane, a Bombardier Challenger 300, took off from Istanbul to Beirut at 6:02 am.

The Hurriyet news website, citing an Interior Ministry official, said Turkish border police were not notified about Ghosn's arrival and that neither his entry nor exit were registered. A police spokeswoman told Reuters that all seven people would give statements before a court Thursday.

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Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn confirmed on Dec. 31 he fled for Lebanon despite being under strict bail conditions not to leave Japan. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, Japanese prosecutors raided Ghosn's now-vacated house in Tokyo on Thursday, as they sought clues to how he evaded their surveillance, slipped out of the country and arrived in Lebanon.

Ghosn will give answers at a news conference in Beirut on Wednesday, said Ricardo Karam, a television host and close friend. But for the time being, the mystery has gripped the people of Japan and both baffled and embarrassed their government.

On Thursday, a possible answer emerged to one of the questions surrounding his dramatic escape: How could he have entered Lebanon on his French passport — as the Lebanese government insists he did — when his Japanese lawyer says he held the businessman’s French, Brazilian and Lebanese passports?

Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported that Ghosn was issued two French passports, the second of which was kept in a locked case at his house.

NHK quoted unnamed sources as saying that both passports were initially kept by his lawyers but that Ghosn convinced the court in May that he needed to carry one with him. The document was then kept at his house, with his lawyers holding the keys to the box.

Japanese law stipulates that foreign tourists need to carry their passports with them, although foreign residents on long-term visas need only to carry residence cards.

Lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, who had earlier claimed that Ghosn’s legal team had all his passports, told NHK that the existence of an extra passport at the businessman’s house had “slipped my mind.” He explained that he was not personally in charge of handling the travel documents.

But there were no immediate answers as to how Ghosn had slipped past the surveillance cameras at his house, or past immigration authorities at Osaka’s busy Kansai airport to board a private jet. Did he evade immigration checks, or travel on a false passport with a record of having entered the country?

Japan’s immigration authorities’ database shows no record of Ghosn leaving the country, according to local media, and police are now investigating him for a possible violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. A Tokyo court has already rescinded his record $14 million bail, and police also intend to review security camera footage from around his house, NHK reported.

Ghosn’s wife, Carole, dismissed as “fiction” a Lebanese media report that Ghosn was smuggled out of his house in a box designed for musical instruments, Reuters news agency reported.

Some media reports had suggested his wife had helped him escape, but Ghosn denied that was the case. “All such speculation is inaccurate and false,” he said in a statement. “I alone arranged for my departure. My family had no role whatsoever.”

Under the terms of Ghosn’s bail, security cameras were installed outside his house, he was denied access to email and the Internet, and he was even forbidden for months to talk to his wife.

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Private security guards flank a man who identified himself as a family doctor as he enters the house of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn in Beirut on Jan. 2. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)
Reuters, citing two sources close to Ghosn, reported that he sneaked out of his home with the help of a private security company and traveled on a private jet to Istanbul and then on to Beirut, with even the pilot unaware of his presence on board.

“It was a very professional operation from start to finish,” one of them was quoted as saying.

The sources told Reuters that Ghosn met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday and was greeted warmly by him, but an official in the president’s office, who was not authorized to give his name, denied that such a meeting took place.

Ghosn has considerable support among Lebanon’s political and business elite, although whether he enjoys the same level of sympathy among ordinary people is less certain.

Lebanon’s Justice Ministry said Thursday that it has received a wanted notice for Ghosn issued by Interpol, the international police organization. But while Interpol “red notices” alert police about internationally wanted fugitives, there is no compulsion for any country to arrest the subject.

Potentially of more concern for Ghosn was news that two Lebanese lawyers had submitted a report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office accusing him of violating a law that forbids Lebanese nationals from entering Israel — a potentially serious offense.

“We stand in amazement at the silence of the Lebanese political parties, which are considered allies of the resistance against Israel, over such security breaches,” said the statement from lawyers Hassan Bazi and Ali Abbas, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

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After former Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn fled Japan for Lebanon, his lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, said on Dec. 31 the news was an "unexpected surprise." (Reuters)

The Lebanese government says it asked Japan to release the businessman to its custody a year ago and pledged to try him under international anti-corruption regulations. But Beirut says Tokyo never responded to that request, and the prospect of any trial at all now looks remote. Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan, as it has already pointed out.

Ghosn has said he is not a fugitive from justice but was escaping injustice and political persecution.

Independent legal experts contrast the harsh treatment that Ghosn received — a total of more than 120 days’ detention in an unheated cell, hours of interrogation without a lawyer present, charges that carried a maximum sentence of 15 years — with the way Japanese business executives often get away scot-free or with a slap on the wrist for much more serious crimes.

Nevertheless, major questions remain unanswered about Ghosn’s tenure as head of Nissan and Renault, two car companies whose fortunes he turned around and merged into a powerful alliance.

Ghosn was charged with four counts of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust, including by allegedly underreporting his income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East.

Ghosn and his attorneys say the allegations were trumped up as part of a conspiracy among Nissan, government officials and prosecutors to oust Ghosn and block his plans to force through a closer merger between the Japanese automaker and its alliance partner, Renault.

But Nissan said its investigations revealed misconduct that included understating his salary and transferring $5 million of company funds to an account in which he had an interest.

Renault, initially supportive of its former boss, announced in April after an internal investigation that it had found evidence of “questionable and concealed practices and violations of the group’s ethical principles.”

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Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn leaves Tokyo’s detention center on April 25. (AP)
Kareem Fahim in Istanbul, Suzan Haidamous in Washington, Akiko Kashiwagi in Tokyo and Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this report.
 
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