the movie is gonna be LIT
Ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn jumps bail & house arrest in Japan for corruption; Escapes to Lebanon
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washingtonpost.com
Carlos Ghosn walked out of his home alone, security camera footage shows
Simon Denyer
7-9 minutes
TOKYO — Security camera footage shows former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn walking out of his Tokyo home alone around noon Sunday, hours before he fled the country in a private jet, Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported Friday, citing investigative sources.
The footage is one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle as authorities here try to figure out how Ghosn jumped $14 million bail, fled the country and escaped to Lebanon to evade charges of financial misconduct and a potential jail term of up to 15 years.
Ghosn’s escape has been a major embarrassment for Japan, with one outspoken politician saying the country had become a laughingstock.
Although surveillance cameras were installed outside Ghosn’s home as part of his bail conditions, he was free to come and go as he pleased and would regularly visit his lawyer’s office to discuss his defense, his lawyers say.
The surveillance footage was not monitored in real time, and recordings were handed over to authorities only in the middle of every month, according to the website of one of his lawyers, Takashi Takano. Records of his meetings, of his mobile phone calls and of his Internet use at a computer in his lawyer’s office were also submitted on a monthly basis.
An exterior of the residence of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn on Jan. 3 in Tokyo. (Toru Hanai/AFP/Getty Images)
Lebanese news channel MTV had claimed Ghosn was spirited out of his home in a box designed for musical instruments, after a band had played there. Ghosn’s wife, Carole, called that account “fiction,” and it now appears all Ghosn needed to do was open the door and walk away.
The bail conditions were designed to keep him from tampering with evidence and fleeing the country and were not meant to keep him under house arrest, lawyers say, and Ghosn and his family even visited Kyoto late last year.
Nevertheless, legal experts have already called for Japan to use GPS-monitoring for suspects released on bail, a practice common in the United States but not employed here.
From Tokyo, Ghosn would have had plenty of time to make it to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, roughly six to nine hours by car on a Sunday afternoon, depending on traffic. From there, he is believed to have flown to Istanbul and on to Beirut.
The flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that a Bombardier Global Express jet left Osaka’s Kansai airport at 11:15 p.m. and arrived at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport at 5:15 a.m. Monday. A separate plane, a Bombardier Challenger 300, took off from Istanbul to Beirut at 6:02 a.m.
Turkish authorities said Thursday that they had detained seven people, including four pilots and three ground staff, on suspicion of having helped Ghosn “illegally” transit through Istanbul, while officials told local media that neither Ghosn’s arrival nor exit were registered.
Turkish police officers escort suspects in Istanbul on Jan. 3 who are accused of involvement in former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn’s passage through Istanbul after he fled Japan. (Ugur Can/AP)
On Friday, the Turkish airline company whose jets were used to fly Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon said that an employee had falsified records and that Ghosn’s name did not appear on any documentation related to the flights.
Istanbul-based MNG Jet said in a statement that it had filed a criminal complaint in Turkey concerning the illegal use of its jet charter services, adding that an employee admitted to falsifying records and “confirmed that he acted in his individual capacity” without the company's knowledge.
Japan’s immigration authorities say they have no record of Ghosn leaving the country, although they did record passengers leaving on a plane for Istanbul on Sunday evening, local media reported.
It is only on his arrival in Lebanon that Ghosn resurfaced, entering on a French passport that he had been allowed to keep at his home in a locked case. Ghosn had been asked to surrender his French, Brazilian and Lebanese passports to his lawyers under the terms of his bail, but was allowed to keep a spare passport at his home, in a locked box with his lawyers having the keys.
In retrospect, the arrangements appear shockingly lax, as critics have not been slow to point out.
Ghosn left Japan at the sleepiest time possible, late Sunday night at the start of a holiday week here. His plane from Osaka flew entirely through Russian airspace before reaching Turkey, according to Flightradar24, a fairly standard route for a private jet that minimizes the number of national overflight permits needed and fees that would have to be paid, experts said.
He landed at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, which was closed to commercial traffic in April after the opening of the new Istanbul Airport and now handles only military, private, cargo and diplomatic flights.
The biggest mystery remains how he evaded immigration controls in Osaka.
Experts said controls on passengers traveling on private jets around the world are generally laxer than on people using commercial airlines, and controls on flights leaving the country less strict than on those entering.
But Japanese media say all passengers leaving Japan need to pass through immigration.
Ichiro Kubo, a former immigration control officer and now an immigration consultant, said he couldn’t imagine Ghosn being waved through by immigration officials, especially as they keep a list of people barred from leaving Japan.
“If someone in the list tries to pass immigration, he would be found,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there is a zero chance for some lapse to have happened, but his face is so well known, and their very job is to prevent people like him from escaping.”
Kubo speculated that Ghosn might have been spirited out in a box or item of luggage.
“It’s possible that they didn’t examine what’s inside,” he said. “It’s private companies who are in charge of checking passengers’ luggage.”
But an airport employee told Japan’s Jiji press that boxes of such a size would have been inspected. “We always open a large box, especially those large enough to hold a human being,” he was quoted as saying. “Normally, it’s unthinkable.”
Ghosn’s escape is even more embarrassing for Japan given that the government says it is tightening its airport security ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to prevent terrorist attacks. The government’s silence on the subject during the holiday week is also attracting criticism.
“For how much longer are the government and legal authorities thinking of enjoying their New Year holiday, even though they have committed a huge blunder like allowing Ghosn to escape?” tweeted former Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe, an outspoken critic. “Turkey has already detained people including pilots. Japan, with a government that has failed in risk management, is being laughed at.”
Ghosn himself may have the last laugh. French newspaper Le Monde reported Friday that Ghosn had signed an exclusive deal with Netflix to cover his story, months before leaving Japan, though that report could not be independently verified.
Quentin Aries in Paris and Kareem Fahim in Istanbul contributed to this report.
Carlos Ghosn walked out of his home alone, security camera footage shows
Simon Denyer
7-9 minutes
TOKYO — Security camera footage shows former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn walking out of his Tokyo home alone around noon Sunday, hours before he fled the country in a private jet, Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported Friday, citing investigative sources.
The footage is one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle as authorities here try to figure out how Ghosn jumped $14 million bail, fled the country and escaped to Lebanon to evade charges of financial misconduct and a potential jail term of up to 15 years.
Ghosn’s escape has been a major embarrassment for Japan, with one outspoken politician saying the country had become a laughingstock.
Although surveillance cameras were installed outside Ghosn’s home as part of his bail conditions, he was free to come and go as he pleased and would regularly visit his lawyer’s office to discuss his defense, his lawyers say.
The surveillance footage was not monitored in real time, and recordings were handed over to authorities only in the middle of every month, according to the website of one of his lawyers, Takashi Takano. Records of his meetings, of his mobile phone calls and of his Internet use at a computer in his lawyer’s office were also submitted on a monthly basis.
An exterior of the residence of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn on Jan. 3 in Tokyo. (Toru Hanai/AFP/Getty Images)
Lebanese news channel MTV had claimed Ghosn was spirited out of his home in a box designed for musical instruments, after a band had played there. Ghosn’s wife, Carole, called that account “fiction,” and it now appears all Ghosn needed to do was open the door and walk away.
The bail conditions were designed to keep him from tampering with evidence and fleeing the country and were not meant to keep him under house arrest, lawyers say, and Ghosn and his family even visited Kyoto late last year.
Nevertheless, legal experts have already called for Japan to use GPS-monitoring for suspects released on bail, a practice common in the United States but not employed here.
From Tokyo, Ghosn would have had plenty of time to make it to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, roughly six to nine hours by car on a Sunday afternoon, depending on traffic. From there, he is believed to have flown to Istanbul and on to Beirut.
The flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that a Bombardier Global Express jet left Osaka’s Kansai airport at 11:15 p.m. and arrived at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport at 5:15 a.m. Monday. A separate plane, a Bombardier Challenger 300, took off from Istanbul to Beirut at 6:02 a.m.
Turkish authorities said Thursday that they had detained seven people, including four pilots and three ground staff, on suspicion of having helped Ghosn “illegally” transit through Istanbul, while officials told local media that neither Ghosn’s arrival nor exit were registered.
Turkish police officers escort suspects in Istanbul on Jan. 3 who are accused of involvement in former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn’s passage through Istanbul after he fled Japan. (Ugur Can/AP)
On Friday, the Turkish airline company whose jets were used to fly Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon said that an employee had falsified records and that Ghosn’s name did not appear on any documentation related to the flights.
Istanbul-based MNG Jet said in a statement that it had filed a criminal complaint in Turkey concerning the illegal use of its jet charter services, adding that an employee admitted to falsifying records and “confirmed that he acted in his individual capacity” without the company's knowledge.
Japan’s immigration authorities say they have no record of Ghosn leaving the country, although they did record passengers leaving on a plane for Istanbul on Sunday evening, local media reported.
It is only on his arrival in Lebanon that Ghosn resurfaced, entering on a French passport that he had been allowed to keep at his home in a locked case. Ghosn had been asked to surrender his French, Brazilian and Lebanese passports to his lawyers under the terms of his bail, but was allowed to keep a spare passport at his home, in a locked box with his lawyers having the keys.
In retrospect, the arrangements appear shockingly lax, as critics have not been slow to point out.
Ghosn left Japan at the sleepiest time possible, late Sunday night at the start of a holiday week here. His plane from Osaka flew entirely through Russian airspace before reaching Turkey, according to Flightradar24, a fairly standard route for a private jet that minimizes the number of national overflight permits needed and fees that would have to be paid, experts said.
He landed at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, which was closed to commercial traffic in April after the opening of the new Istanbul Airport and now handles only military, private, cargo and diplomatic flights.
The biggest mystery remains how he evaded immigration controls in Osaka.
Experts said controls on passengers traveling on private jets around the world are generally laxer than on people using commercial airlines, and controls on flights leaving the country less strict than on those entering.
But Japanese media say all passengers leaving Japan need to pass through immigration.
Ichiro Kubo, a former immigration control officer and now an immigration consultant, said he couldn’t imagine Ghosn being waved through by immigration officials, especially as they keep a list of people barred from leaving Japan.
“If someone in the list tries to pass immigration, he would be found,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there is a zero chance for some lapse to have happened, but his face is so well known, and their very job is to prevent people like him from escaping.”
Kubo speculated that Ghosn might have been spirited out in a box or item of luggage.
“It’s possible that they didn’t examine what’s inside,” he said. “It’s private companies who are in charge of checking passengers’ luggage.”
But an airport employee told Japan’s Jiji press that boxes of such a size would have been inspected. “We always open a large box, especially those large enough to hold a human being,” he was quoted as saying. “Normally, it’s unthinkable.”
Ghosn’s escape is even more embarrassing for Japan given that the government says it is tightening its airport security ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to prevent terrorist attacks. The government’s silence on the subject during the holiday week is also attracting criticism.
“For how much longer are the government and legal authorities thinking of enjoying their New Year holiday, even though they have committed a huge blunder like allowing Ghosn to escape?” tweeted former Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe, an outspoken critic. “Turkey has already detained people including pilots. Japan, with a government that has failed in risk management, is being laughed at.”
Ghosn himself may have the last laugh. French newspaper Le Monde reported Friday that Ghosn had signed an exclusive deal with Netflix to cover his story, months before leaving Japan, though that report could not be independently verified.
Quentin Aries in Paris and Kareem Fahim in Istanbul contributed to this report.
wsj.com
Inside Carlos Ghosn’s Great Escape: A Train, Planes and a Big Black Box
Nick Kostov in Beirut, David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul, Sam Schechner in Paris and Miho Inada in Osaka
19-24 minutes
After months of planning and millions of dollars in costs, Carlos Ghosn climbed into a large, black case with holes drilled in the bottom. He had just traveled by train 300 miles from his court-approved Tokyo home to Osaka, Japan.
It was Sunday evening, Dec. 29, the moment of truth in a plan so audacious that some of its own organizers worried at times it wouldn’t work. A team of private security experts hired to spirit Mr. Ghosn out of Japan hadn’t done a dry run of their scheme to sneak the box containing the former auto executive past airport security, according to a person familiar with the matter. That is standard operating procedure for such a high-stakes smuggling operation. They had cased the airport just twice before, including that morning.
“It’s impossible,” one team member had said during the planning.
Mr. Ghosn’s decision to jump bail in Japan set in motion a 23-hour international caper with little modern precedent. The plot involved advance teams that scoped out vulnerable airports, human messengers and a predawn plane transfer on the tarmac of a nearly deserted airport in Istanbul.
That drizzly evening, two people accompanied the wheeled box—typically used for concert gear—through the private-jet lounge of Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, according to an account provided by Japanese authorities to local journalists and a person familiar with the matter. The team passed the wood-paneled entrance of the lounge, called Tamayura, or “brief moment,” down a hallway and around a pair of crescent-shaped cream-colored sofas to the security checkpoint.
Mr. Ghosn’s case made it past the checkpoint unexamined: It was too large to fit in the lounge’s X-ray machine, and no one checked it by hand either, the person said. The box was then loaded into the cabin of a 13-passenger Bombardier Inc. Global Express jet through the rear cargo door. A decoy box, this one actually filled with audio equipment, was also wedged inside the cabin. The plane took off a short time later, flight records show.
This account of Mr. Ghosn’s escape was compiled from interviews with people familiar with its planning and execution, with people knowledgeable about an unfolding probe in Turkey and from briefings made by authorities to reporters in Japan. Mr. Ghosn has scheduled a press conference in Beirut for Wednesday.
The Great Escape
How Carlos Ghosn fled from Tokyo, allegedly with the help of two American security consultants, Michael Taylor and George-Antoine Zayek, and arrived in Lebanon.
Sources: Japanese media reports; people familiar with the matter; FlightRadar24 (flight path)
Mr. Ghosn, the former chief of France’s Renault SA and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. , faced a trial that was supposed to kick off later this year. Prosecutors have charged him with financial crimes, including allegedly hiding tens of millions of dollars in deferred compensation and misappropriating funds belonging to Nissan.
Mr. Ghosn denies the charges, and posted bail of almost $14 million to remain free of jail, living in a video-monitored home with tight restrictions over whom he could see. He assembled an international team of lawyers to defend him in court.
In the end, though, he put his faith in a different team—a group of about a dozen operatives, including at least one with experience extracting hostages from war-zone confinement.
Mr. Ghosn has said he arranged his exit from Japan by himself. But this account suggests he enlisted a larger cast of characters. Collaborators started laying the groundwork in the spring, not long after Mr. Ghosn was released on bail for the second time in April. Associates had considered how to get Mr. Ghosn out of Japan to a country where he might be able to clear his name more easily. People close to Mr. Ghosn began contacting former soldiers and spies to find people willing to take on the task.
By the end of July, a security team that would eventually expand to 10 to 15 people of different nationalities began planning in earnest. The team was divided into various work streams, each siloed from the others so that individuals on one assignment didn’t know what others were doing.
A private security guard stands outside the house of ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn in Beirut on Jan. 5. Photo: Hussein Malla/Associated Press
Among the team, according to people working on the Japanese and Turkish probes, was Michael Taylor, 59 years old, an ex-Special Forces soldier known for his track record of rescuing hostage victims in collaboration with the U.S. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Square-jawed, with thick salt-and-pepper hair and a dimpled smile, Mr. Taylor is an Arabic speaker with deep connections to Lebanon, where he met his wife when deployed as a Green Beret in the 1980s.
The New York Times hired Mr. Taylor’s former company to help rescue reporter David Rohde from Taliban captivity in Afghanistan in 2009. Mr. Taylor more recently served time in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to two charges stemming from a federal bid-rigging investigation.
Michael Taylor, an ex-Green Beret known for rescuing hostages.
Also part of the team, according to people familiar with the probes: George-Antoine Zayek, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen who had worked with Mr. Taylor at times over more than a decade. Mr. Zayek, a member of the Lebanese Christian community like Mr. Ghosn, had been injured in fighting in Lebanon in the 1970s and later worked in private security with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to relatives in Lebanon.
The two were identified by Turkish authorities as being aboard the jet that flew Mr. Ghosn out of Japan.
Dubai became one of the team’s forward staging areas. Mr. Taylor visited the emirate eight times in the six months leading up to the operation, while Mr. Zayek visited four times in the final three months, sometimes together, sometimes separately, according to Dubai records viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Over the course of more than 20 trips to Japan, operatives scoped out more than 10 airports or other ports from which Mr. Ghosn could potentially exit the country.
The extraction team also seriously pursued other options besides airports, including smuggling Mr. Ghosn out of Japan by boat. The overall budget for the operation was “in the millions” of dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter.
To communicate with each other and Mr. Ghosn, the organizers often used human messengers. That sidestepped Japanese officials’ restrictions on Mr. Ghosn’s internet use—he was barred from using a smartphone and carried a cellphone without internet connection.
The communications network was used to narrow down dates, times and location, but chatter was kept to a minimum.
It wasn’t until the fall that a member of the team first visited the Osaka airport’s private-jet terminal. While the airport is busy, the private-jet terminal emerged as a leading candidate because it was often vacant. It is attached to Kansai’s Terminal 2 domestic flights area, and is relatively small—just 3,200 square feet, including a meeting room, a circular lounge, a bathroom and a security zone, according to a brochure.
The premium check-in gate for private jets at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan. Photo: tim kelly/Reuters
Another crucial selling point was that nothing but small bags would fit through the wing’s X-ray machines—certainly not a large flight case like the one Mr. Ghosn would end up using. By speaking to people who had used the terminal, the team learned that bags were hardly ever checked on the way out.
By early December, the operation to extract Mr. Ghosn was ready to be activated, with Osaka as the extraction point. Mr. Ghosn, though, was still keeping his options open, according to people familiar with his thinking, and the plan could still be called off at the last minute.
On Christmas Eve, Mr. Ghosn—having been denied in court the right for his wife to visit for the holidays—spoke to her for an hour via videoconference, according to Mr. Ghosn’s lawyer in Japan.
The same day, a person identifying himself as “Dr. Ross Allen” signed a $350,000 contract with a Turkish private jet operator, MNG Jet Havacilik AS, to book a long-range Bombardier jet for two journeys—first from Dubai to Osaka, and then from Osaka to Istanbul, according to booking documents viewed by the Journal and people familiar with the matter. The price also included logistical services on the ground in Osaka, one of the people said.
The private Bombardier jet used for Carlos Ghosn’s escape. Photo: alp akbostanci/Reuters
MNG said it was unaware of the plan and has filed a criminal complaint against an employee it has said was complicit in the plot to smuggle Mr. Ghosn through Turkey. Turkish prosecutors have charged the employee and four pilots with migrant smuggling. A lawyer for the employee said his client denied wrongdoing. Lawyers for the pilots either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment.
A pretrial hearing on Christmas Day hardened Mr. Ghosn’s resolve to leave Japan. He believed the court was dragging its feet and would never treat him fairly. Japan’s conviction rate for indicted defendants runs above 99%. The country has defended its system as rigorous, and prosecutors promised a fair trial.
Two days later, Messrs. Taylor and Zayek arrived together in Dubai for the last time before their trip to Japan, records show. Then, on the evening of the 28th, they were off on the red-eye to Osaka. On board their long-range Bombardier jet were the two concert-equipment cases.
Mr. Ghosn left his three-story Tokyo house at around 2:30 p.m. local time, according to Japanese investigators who outlined the highlights of surveillance tapes to local media. He was captured on video, alone, wearing a hat and a surgical mask common in Japan to protect from germs and pollution. He caught a cab for a short ride to the Grand Hyatt, an imposing hotel popular among business executives and political leaders in the Roppongi district.
After entering near a lobby display of bamboo, disco balls and fairy lights put up for the New Year holiday, he met two foreign men, according to the investigators’ account. He narrowly missed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who checked into the hotel slightly later for an annual vacation.
Mr. Ghosn was able to disappear in part because no one was monitoring his house regularly. His legal team was required to submit security footage only once a month. Security personnel at nearby locations said police and prosecutors didn’t appear to be watching the building. During an early stint in jail, he had petitioned the court to allow him to go free with an electronic ankle bracelet. The request was rejected because Japan doesn’t use the technology. He was later released on bail.
Japanese authorities carry bags out of the Tokyo residence of former auto tyc00n Carlos Ghosn on January 2. Photo: JIJI PRESS/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A private security company hired by Nissan to tail Mr. Ghosn had stopped work that day, after Mr. Ghosn’s lawyers threatened legal action against the company for allegedly harassing Mr. Ghosn, according to a person familiar with Nissan’s plans. A Nissan spokesman declined to comment on the surveillance.
Mr. Ghosn went to one of Japan’s biggest rail stations to catch a bullet train to Osaka. While the train was crowded, risks for this leg of the journey were low. Mr. Ghosn was allowed to travel within Japan.
In Osaka, it was already dark when Mr. Ghosn arrived around 7:30 p.m. He took a taxi across town to a hotel in a tall white tower just a 10-minute drive to the airport, according to briefings by Japanese authorities. Mr. Ghosn was seen entering the hotel but not leaving it, leading investigators to conclude he got into the box at the hotel.
That night, a black van arrived at Kansai’s private jet terminal, where two people were waiting for it, according to a worker who helps airport bus customers with luggage. The van appeared to drop off passengers and left after a few minutes, this person said.
By 11:10 p.m. Messrs. Ghosn, Taylor and Zayek were in the air and heading north toward international waters, according to flight records and people familiar with the matter. Only Messrs. Zayek and Taylor were on the manifest, according to people familiar with the Turkish probe.
As the plane flew north, passing over Russia, Mr. Ghosn emerged from the case, but stayed in one of the cream-colored seats at the rear, so as to not be seen by the flight crew.
Inside Carlos Ghosn’s Great Escape: A Train, Planes and a Big Black Box
Nick Kostov in Beirut, David Gauthier-Villars in Istanbul, Sam Schechner in Paris and Miho Inada in Osaka
19-24 minutes
After months of planning and millions of dollars in costs, Carlos Ghosn climbed into a large, black case with holes drilled in the bottom. He had just traveled by train 300 miles from his court-approved Tokyo home to Osaka, Japan.
It was Sunday evening, Dec. 29, the moment of truth in a plan so audacious that some of its own organizers worried at times it wouldn’t work. A team of private security experts hired to spirit Mr. Ghosn out of Japan hadn’t done a dry run of their scheme to sneak the box containing the former auto executive past airport security, according to a person familiar with the matter. That is standard operating procedure for such a high-stakes smuggling operation. They had cased the airport just twice before, including that morning.
“It’s impossible,” one team member had said during the planning.
Mr. Ghosn’s decision to jump bail in Japan set in motion a 23-hour international caper with little modern precedent. The plot involved advance teams that scoped out vulnerable airports, human messengers and a predawn plane transfer on the tarmac of a nearly deserted airport in Istanbul.
That drizzly evening, two people accompanied the wheeled box—typically used for concert gear—through the private-jet lounge of Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, according to an account provided by Japanese authorities to local journalists and a person familiar with the matter. The team passed the wood-paneled entrance of the lounge, called Tamayura, or “brief moment,” down a hallway and around a pair of crescent-shaped cream-colored sofas to the security checkpoint.
Mr. Ghosn’s case made it past the checkpoint unexamined: It was too large to fit in the lounge’s X-ray machine, and no one checked it by hand either, the person said. The box was then loaded into the cabin of a 13-passenger Bombardier Inc. Global Express jet through the rear cargo door. A decoy box, this one actually filled with audio equipment, was also wedged inside the cabin. The plane took off a short time later, flight records show.
This account of Mr. Ghosn’s escape was compiled from interviews with people familiar with its planning and execution, with people knowledgeable about an unfolding probe in Turkey and from briefings made by authorities to reporters in Japan. Mr. Ghosn has scheduled a press conference in Beirut for Wednesday.
The Great Escape
How Carlos Ghosn fled from Tokyo, allegedly with the help of two American security consultants, Michael Taylor and George-Antoine Zayek, and arrived in Lebanon.
Sources: Japanese media reports; people familiar with the matter; FlightRadar24 (flight path)
Mr. Ghosn, the former chief of France’s Renault SA and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. , faced a trial that was supposed to kick off later this year. Prosecutors have charged him with financial crimes, including allegedly hiding tens of millions of dollars in deferred compensation and misappropriating funds belonging to Nissan.
Mr. Ghosn denies the charges, and posted bail of almost $14 million to remain free of jail, living in a video-monitored home with tight restrictions over whom he could see. He assembled an international team of lawyers to defend him in court.
In the end, though, he put his faith in a different team—a group of about a dozen operatives, including at least one with experience extracting hostages from war-zone confinement.
Mr. Ghosn has said he arranged his exit from Japan by himself. But this account suggests he enlisted a larger cast of characters. Collaborators started laying the groundwork in the spring, not long after Mr. Ghosn was released on bail for the second time in April. Associates had considered how to get Mr. Ghosn out of Japan to a country where he might be able to clear his name more easily. People close to Mr. Ghosn began contacting former soldiers and spies to find people willing to take on the task.
By the end of July, a security team that would eventually expand to 10 to 15 people of different nationalities began planning in earnest. The team was divided into various work streams, each siloed from the others so that individuals on one assignment didn’t know what others were doing.
A private security guard stands outside the house of ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn in Beirut on Jan. 5. Photo: Hussein Malla/Associated Press
Among the team, according to people working on the Japanese and Turkish probes, was Michael Taylor, 59 years old, an ex-Special Forces soldier known for his track record of rescuing hostage victims in collaboration with the U.S. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Square-jawed, with thick salt-and-pepper hair and a dimpled smile, Mr. Taylor is an Arabic speaker with deep connections to Lebanon, where he met his wife when deployed as a Green Beret in the 1980s.
The New York Times hired Mr. Taylor’s former company to help rescue reporter David Rohde from Taliban captivity in Afghanistan in 2009. Mr. Taylor more recently served time in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to two charges stemming from a federal bid-rigging investigation.
Michael Taylor, an ex-Green Beret known for rescuing hostages.
Also part of the team, according to people familiar with the probes: George-Antoine Zayek, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen who had worked with Mr. Taylor at times over more than a decade. Mr. Zayek, a member of the Lebanese Christian community like Mr. Ghosn, had been injured in fighting in Lebanon in the 1970s and later worked in private security with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to relatives in Lebanon.
The two were identified by Turkish authorities as being aboard the jet that flew Mr. Ghosn out of Japan.
Dubai became one of the team’s forward staging areas. Mr. Taylor visited the emirate eight times in the six months leading up to the operation, while Mr. Zayek visited four times in the final three months, sometimes together, sometimes separately, according to Dubai records viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Over the course of more than 20 trips to Japan, operatives scoped out more than 10 airports or other ports from which Mr. Ghosn could potentially exit the country.
The extraction team also seriously pursued other options besides airports, including smuggling Mr. Ghosn out of Japan by boat. The overall budget for the operation was “in the millions” of dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter.
To communicate with each other and Mr. Ghosn, the organizers often used human messengers. That sidestepped Japanese officials’ restrictions on Mr. Ghosn’s internet use—he was barred from using a smartphone and carried a cellphone without internet connection.
The communications network was used to narrow down dates, times and location, but chatter was kept to a minimum.
It wasn’t until the fall that a member of the team first visited the Osaka airport’s private-jet terminal. While the airport is busy, the private-jet terminal emerged as a leading candidate because it was often vacant. It is attached to Kansai’s Terminal 2 domestic flights area, and is relatively small—just 3,200 square feet, including a meeting room, a circular lounge, a bathroom and a security zone, according to a brochure.
The premium check-in gate for private jets at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan. Photo: tim kelly/Reuters
Another crucial selling point was that nothing but small bags would fit through the wing’s X-ray machines—certainly not a large flight case like the one Mr. Ghosn would end up using. By speaking to people who had used the terminal, the team learned that bags were hardly ever checked on the way out.
By early December, the operation to extract Mr. Ghosn was ready to be activated, with Osaka as the extraction point. Mr. Ghosn, though, was still keeping his options open, according to people familiar with his thinking, and the plan could still be called off at the last minute.
On Christmas Eve, Mr. Ghosn—having been denied in court the right for his wife to visit for the holidays—spoke to her for an hour via videoconference, according to Mr. Ghosn’s lawyer in Japan.
The same day, a person identifying himself as “Dr. Ross Allen” signed a $350,000 contract with a Turkish private jet operator, MNG Jet Havacilik AS, to book a long-range Bombardier jet for two journeys—first from Dubai to Osaka, and then from Osaka to Istanbul, according to booking documents viewed by the Journal and people familiar with the matter. The price also included logistical services on the ground in Osaka, one of the people said.
The private Bombardier jet used for Carlos Ghosn’s escape. Photo: alp akbostanci/Reuters
MNG said it was unaware of the plan and has filed a criminal complaint against an employee it has said was complicit in the plot to smuggle Mr. Ghosn through Turkey. Turkish prosecutors have charged the employee and four pilots with migrant smuggling. A lawyer for the employee said his client denied wrongdoing. Lawyers for the pilots either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment.
A pretrial hearing on Christmas Day hardened Mr. Ghosn’s resolve to leave Japan. He believed the court was dragging its feet and would never treat him fairly. Japan’s conviction rate for indicted defendants runs above 99%. The country has defended its system as rigorous, and prosecutors promised a fair trial.
Two days later, Messrs. Taylor and Zayek arrived together in Dubai for the last time before their trip to Japan, records show. Then, on the evening of the 28th, they were off on the red-eye to Osaka. On board their long-range Bombardier jet were the two concert-equipment cases.
Mr. Ghosn left his three-story Tokyo house at around 2:30 p.m. local time, according to Japanese investigators who outlined the highlights of surveillance tapes to local media. He was captured on video, alone, wearing a hat and a surgical mask common in Japan to protect from germs and pollution. He caught a cab for a short ride to the Grand Hyatt, an imposing hotel popular among business executives and political leaders in the Roppongi district.
After entering near a lobby display of bamboo, disco balls and fairy lights put up for the New Year holiday, he met two foreign men, according to the investigators’ account. He narrowly missed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who checked into the hotel slightly later for an annual vacation.
Mr. Ghosn was able to disappear in part because no one was monitoring his house regularly. His legal team was required to submit security footage only once a month. Security personnel at nearby locations said police and prosecutors didn’t appear to be watching the building. During an early stint in jail, he had petitioned the court to allow him to go free with an electronic ankle bracelet. The request was rejected because Japan doesn’t use the technology. He was later released on bail.
Japanese authorities carry bags out of the Tokyo residence of former auto tyc00n Carlos Ghosn on January 2. Photo: JIJI PRESS/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A private security company hired by Nissan to tail Mr. Ghosn had stopped work that day, after Mr. Ghosn’s lawyers threatened legal action against the company for allegedly harassing Mr. Ghosn, according to a person familiar with Nissan’s plans. A Nissan spokesman declined to comment on the surveillance.
Mr. Ghosn went to one of Japan’s biggest rail stations to catch a bullet train to Osaka. While the train was crowded, risks for this leg of the journey were low. Mr. Ghosn was allowed to travel within Japan.
In Osaka, it was already dark when Mr. Ghosn arrived around 7:30 p.m. He took a taxi across town to a hotel in a tall white tower just a 10-minute drive to the airport, according to briefings by Japanese authorities. Mr. Ghosn was seen entering the hotel but not leaving it, leading investigators to conclude he got into the box at the hotel.
That night, a black van arrived at Kansai’s private jet terminal, where two people were waiting for it, according to a worker who helps airport bus customers with luggage. The van appeared to drop off passengers and left after a few minutes, this person said.
By 11:10 p.m. Messrs. Ghosn, Taylor and Zayek were in the air and heading north toward international waters, according to flight records and people familiar with the matter. Only Messrs. Zayek and Taylor were on the manifest, according to people familiar with the Turkish probe.
As the plane flew north, passing over Russia, Mr. Ghosn emerged from the case, but stayed in one of the cream-colored seats at the rear, so as to not be seen by the flight crew.
PART 2:
The audio-equipment case Carlos Ghosn hid in during his escape from Japan.
The jet arrived at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport at 5:12 a.m. local time, flight records show. One of the reasons for the stopover was to avoid raising suspicions in Japan with a flight plan connecting Japan with Beirut, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Atatürk, named for the country’s modern founder, was for a time Turkey’s busiest airport. But since last year, it has been nearly a ghost town, with most traffic moving to a new airport that had opened across the megalopolis. The private jet terminal is relatively remote.
Before sunrise, Mr. Ghosn emerged from the plane to driving rain, leaving behind the concert-equipment case he had occupied, according to people familiar with a Turkish probe into Mr. Ghosn’s use of the aircraft. He took a car roughly 100 yards to a smaller business jet, the people said.
Share Your Thoughts
Should Carlos Ghosn be sent back to Japan to face trial? Join the conversation below.
Unlike the flight to Turkey, no flight plan was filed for the smaller jet, and Mr. Ghosn was sitting in a passenger seat, according to a person familiar with the Turkish probe. Messrs. Taylor and Zayek didn’t accompany him on that final leg.
As a condition of his bail in Japan, Mr. Ghosn had left French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports in the care of his lawyer in Japan. But Mr. Ghosn had after his release from jail successfully petitioned the court to allow him a second French passport, arguing that foreigners are supposed to carry passports with them when traveling within Japan.
Mr. Ghosn used the French passport and a Lebanese identity card to enter the country, according to people familiar with the matter.
That evening, word of the escape began to leak out, first in Lebanese media and then elsewhere. Mr. Ghosn had made his way to his in-laws’ house, according to a person familiar with his movements. His PR team in the U.S. issued a statement on his behalf: “I have not fled justice—I have escaped injustice and political persecution,” the statement read.
For now, Mr. Ghosn appears to be settling into life in Lebanon, where he has invested in a wine estate and had planned to spend more time during his retirement.
Carlos Ghosn and his wife, Carole, arriving for a screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018. Photo: franck robichon/EPA/Shutterstock
On New Year’s Eve, Mr. Ghosn and his wife, Carole, went to the house of a close friend for a party. The next day, according to a person familiar with the matter, Mrs. Ghosn took her husband to light a candle at the foot of a statue of St. Charbel, a Maronite Christian saint who lived for 23 years as a hermit in Lebanon. Devotees consider the saint a miracle worker.
Being reunited with her husband is “the best gift of my life,” Mrs. Ghosn texted the Journal shortly after his return. “Believe in miracles,” she added.
A Japanese court has since issued an arrest warrant for Mrs. Ghosn on suspicion of perjury. A spokeswoman for the family called the move “pathetic.”
Mr. Ghosn has been spending time in a pink mansion that Nissan purchased and paid to renovate for his use when he was running the Japanese car maker. Since Mr. Ghosn’s arrest, Nissan had been trying to evict the Ghosn family, but they have been allowed to stay while the legal battle winds its way through Lebanese courts.
Nissan, which views the building as a valuable asset, continues to have the house under surveillance, a lawyer for the company said. Nissan security and Mr. Ghosn’s own detail sometimes patrol the property at the same time.
A private security guard stands outside of Mr. Ghosn’s house in Beirut after his arrival in Lebanon. Photo: Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press
—Bradley Hope in London, Mark Maremont in Boston, Rory Jones in Dubai and Nazih Osseiran in Beirut contributed to this article.
Write to Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com, David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com, Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Miho Inada at miho.inada@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The audio-equipment case Carlos Ghosn hid in during his escape from Japan.
The jet arrived at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport at 5:12 a.m. local time, flight records show. One of the reasons for the stopover was to avoid raising suspicions in Japan with a flight plan connecting Japan with Beirut, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Atatürk, named for the country’s modern founder, was for a time Turkey’s busiest airport. But since last year, it has been nearly a ghost town, with most traffic moving to a new airport that had opened across the megalopolis. The private jet terminal is relatively remote.
Before sunrise, Mr. Ghosn emerged from the plane to driving rain, leaving behind the concert-equipment case he had occupied, according to people familiar with a Turkish probe into Mr. Ghosn’s use of the aircraft. He took a car roughly 100 yards to a smaller business jet, the people said.
Share Your Thoughts
Should Carlos Ghosn be sent back to Japan to face trial? Join the conversation below.
Unlike the flight to Turkey, no flight plan was filed for the smaller jet, and Mr. Ghosn was sitting in a passenger seat, according to a person familiar with the Turkish probe. Messrs. Taylor and Zayek didn’t accompany him on that final leg.
As a condition of his bail in Japan, Mr. Ghosn had left French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports in the care of his lawyer in Japan. But Mr. Ghosn had after his release from jail successfully petitioned the court to allow him a second French passport, arguing that foreigners are supposed to carry passports with them when traveling within Japan.
Mr. Ghosn used the French passport and a Lebanese identity card to enter the country, according to people familiar with the matter.
That evening, word of the escape began to leak out, first in Lebanese media and then elsewhere. Mr. Ghosn had made his way to his in-laws’ house, according to a person familiar with his movements. His PR team in the U.S. issued a statement on his behalf: “I have not fled justice—I have escaped injustice and political persecution,” the statement read.
For now, Mr. Ghosn appears to be settling into life in Lebanon, where he has invested in a wine estate and had planned to spend more time during his retirement.
Carlos Ghosn and his wife, Carole, arriving for a screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018. Photo: franck robichon/EPA/Shutterstock
On New Year’s Eve, Mr. Ghosn and his wife, Carole, went to the house of a close friend for a party. The next day, according to a person familiar with the matter, Mrs. Ghosn took her husband to light a candle at the foot of a statue of St. Charbel, a Maronite Christian saint who lived for 23 years as a hermit in Lebanon. Devotees consider the saint a miracle worker.
Being reunited with her husband is “the best gift of my life,” Mrs. Ghosn texted the Journal shortly after his return. “Believe in miracles,” she added.
A Japanese court has since issued an arrest warrant for Mrs. Ghosn on suspicion of perjury. A spokeswoman for the family called the move “pathetic.”
Mr. Ghosn has been spending time in a pink mansion that Nissan purchased and paid to renovate for his use when he was running the Japanese car maker. Since Mr. Ghosn’s arrest, Nissan had been trying to evict the Ghosn family, but they have been allowed to stay while the legal battle winds its way through Lebanese courts.
Nissan, which views the building as a valuable asset, continues to have the house under surveillance, a lawyer for the company said. Nissan security and Mr. Ghosn’s own detail sometimes patrol the property at the same time.
A private security guard stands outside of Mr. Ghosn’s house in Beirut after his arrival in Lebanon. Photo: Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press
—Bradley Hope in London, Mark Maremont in Boston, Rory Jones in Dubai and Nazih Osseiran in Beirut contributed to this article.
Write to Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com, David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com, Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Miho Inada at miho.inada@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
wsj.com
Carlos Ghosn Berates Japan, Nissan Executives in First Public Comments Since Jumping Bail
Sean McLain and Nick Kostov
7-8 minutes
BEIRUT—Carlos Ghosn, speaking for the first time publicly since his dramatic escape from bail in Japan, said he was innocent of charges of financial crimes lodged against him in Tokyo and blamed Japanese prosecutors and executives at his former employer, Nissan Motor Co., for his downfall.
In a dark suit and red tie, the former Nissan chairman said he was “brutally taken” from his world by Japanese authorities when he was arrested in November 2018.
Mr. Ghosn said the “charges against me are baseless” and in part the result of “unscrupulous, vindictive” individuals at Nissan, including former Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and board member Masakazu Toyoda. The company has said the sole reason for Mr. Ghosn’s arrest and dismissal was his misconduct.
The press conference marked Mr. Ghosn’s first public comments since he was spirited late last year from his court-monitored residence in Tokyo onto a private jet bound for Turkey, before continuing by plane to Lebanon. Mr. Ghosn has said he arranged his exit from Japan by himself, but The Wall Street Journal has detailed an operation that drew in a cast of characters and took months of planning.
At times swearing and gesticulating with his hands, Mr. Ghosn started the press conference by unleashing a fusillade of accusations at prosecutors and Nissan executives. He also detailed to a packed room of journalists the harsh conditions he suffered during his time in prison, before posting bail. He said he was interrogated day and night, up to eight hours a day, without the presence of a lawyer.
He provided few details of his escape during the press conference, other than saying he is used to “mission impossible” operations.
Japanese prosecutors have charged him with financial crimes, including hiding tens of millions of dollars in deferred compensation. He denies those allegations, saying any planned future payments were hypothetical and not yet binding on the company.
Mr. Ghosn said that he was told by his lawyers that the legal process in Japan might last five years. “It was not hard to come to the conclusion that you are going to die in Japan or you need to get out,” he said.
He has long said the Japanese justice system, where 99% of indicted individuals are convicted, was stacked against him. In the press conference, he specifically accused Japanese prosecutors of threatening him to force him to confess.
Japanese prosecutors have defended their system and said Mr. Ghosn would have had a fair trial.
Mr. Ghosn has long maintained that his arrest was the result of a coup against him, orchestrated by Nissan executives.
It is a year since he made his first public statements following his arrest in late 2018. Speaking to a Japanese court, a gaunt, graying Mr. Ghosn delivered a short rebuttal of the accusations against him before being sent back to his cell for months.
Ghosn Is on 'Mission Impossible' to Clear His Name
0:00 / 0:57
Ghosn Is on 'Mission Impossible' to Clear His Name
When asked by WSJ's Nick Kostov about the prospect of living as an international fugitive after escaping Japan, Carlos Ghosn said he is determined to clear his name, explaining that he is used to "mission impossible" operations.
While in Japan, Mr. Ghosn chafed at restrictions on his ability to defend himself in the press, according to people familiar with the matter. As an executive leading Renault SA RNO -0.81% and Nissan, NSANY 0.49% he often seemed to relish the spotlight.
Out on bail the first time last April, Mr. Ghosn likewise scheduled a press conference to defend himself. Less than a day later, he was arrested again on fresh charges. Released on bail a second time later that month, he announced no press conference—for fear prosecutors would put him back in jail, said people familiar with the matter.
A secret investigation by a small group of executives there resulted in his arrest. Since then, the company has been buffeted by the fallout. Sales and profit are down, infighting has led to the departure of several executives—including the CEO—and the 20-year-old partnership with Renault is on the rocks.
The Japanese government has asked Lebanon to cooperate in investigating Mr. Ghosn’s escape.
On Wednesday, Mr. Ghosn criticized the performance of the two companies he once led. Both companies’ share prices have suffered sharply since his arrest. Mr. Ghosn said that before the arrest, he was in talks to bring Fiat Chrysler Automobile NV into the auto alliance he had forged between Renault and Nissan.
Details of the Escape
0:00 / 1:14
Details of the Escape
How Carlos Ghosn fled from Tokyo, allegedly with the help of two American security consultants, Michael Taylor and George-Antoine Zayek, and arrived in Lebanon.
He criticized executives at those two car makers for missing a chance for a tie-up, and allowing Fiat Chrysler to agree to merge instead with Renault’s French rival, Peugeot maker PSA Group. That deal came together last year after a proposal by Fiat to merge with Renault faltered.
“The alliance missed the unmissable,” he said. A spokesperson for Fiat Chrysler wasn’t immediately available for comment.
As Mr. Ghosn answered questions from reporters, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Lebanon’s state prosecutor had ordered him to appear before court for questioning Thursday. The summons came after Japan requested, through international police organization Interpol, a “red notice” arrest notice.
According to NNA, Mr. Ghosn will be asked to provide his testimony about the contents of the notice, which accused Mr. Ghosn of committing crimes on Japanese soil and requests his detention. Lebanon isn’t required to detain Mr. Ghosn after the hearing, and the government has indicated it wasn’t considering legal moves against him.
Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com and Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Carlos Ghosn Berates Japan, Nissan Executives in First Public Comments Since Jumping Bail
Sean McLain and Nick Kostov
7-8 minutes
BEIRUT—Carlos Ghosn, speaking for the first time publicly since his dramatic escape from bail in Japan, said he was innocent of charges of financial crimes lodged against him in Tokyo and blamed Japanese prosecutors and executives at his former employer, Nissan Motor Co., for his downfall.
In a dark suit and red tie, the former Nissan chairman said he was “brutally taken” from his world by Japanese authorities when he was arrested in November 2018.
Mr. Ghosn said the “charges against me are baseless” and in part the result of “unscrupulous, vindictive” individuals at Nissan, including former Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa and board member Masakazu Toyoda. The company has said the sole reason for Mr. Ghosn’s arrest and dismissal was his misconduct.
The press conference marked Mr. Ghosn’s first public comments since he was spirited late last year from his court-monitored residence in Tokyo onto a private jet bound for Turkey, before continuing by plane to Lebanon. Mr. Ghosn has said he arranged his exit from Japan by himself, but The Wall Street Journal has detailed an operation that drew in a cast of characters and took months of planning.
At times swearing and gesticulating with his hands, Mr. Ghosn started the press conference by unleashing a fusillade of accusations at prosecutors and Nissan executives. He also detailed to a packed room of journalists the harsh conditions he suffered during his time in prison, before posting bail. He said he was interrogated day and night, up to eight hours a day, without the presence of a lawyer.
He provided few details of his escape during the press conference, other than saying he is used to “mission impossible” operations.
Japanese prosecutors have charged him with financial crimes, including hiding tens of millions of dollars in deferred compensation. He denies those allegations, saying any planned future payments were hypothetical and not yet binding on the company.
Mr. Ghosn said that he was told by his lawyers that the legal process in Japan might last five years. “It was not hard to come to the conclusion that you are going to die in Japan or you need to get out,” he said.
He has long said the Japanese justice system, where 99% of indicted individuals are convicted, was stacked against him. In the press conference, he specifically accused Japanese prosecutors of threatening him to force him to confess.
Japanese prosecutors have defended their system and said Mr. Ghosn would have had a fair trial.
Mr. Ghosn has long maintained that his arrest was the result of a coup against him, orchestrated by Nissan executives.
It is a year since he made his first public statements following his arrest in late 2018. Speaking to a Japanese court, a gaunt, graying Mr. Ghosn delivered a short rebuttal of the accusations against him before being sent back to his cell for months.
Ghosn Is on 'Mission Impossible' to Clear His Name
0:00 / 0:57
Ghosn Is on 'Mission Impossible' to Clear His Name
When asked by WSJ's Nick Kostov about the prospect of living as an international fugitive after escaping Japan, Carlos Ghosn said he is determined to clear his name, explaining that he is used to "mission impossible" operations.
While in Japan, Mr. Ghosn chafed at restrictions on his ability to defend himself in the press, according to people familiar with the matter. As an executive leading Renault SA RNO -0.81% and Nissan, NSANY 0.49% he often seemed to relish the spotlight.
Out on bail the first time last April, Mr. Ghosn likewise scheduled a press conference to defend himself. Less than a day later, he was arrested again on fresh charges. Released on bail a second time later that month, he announced no press conference—for fear prosecutors would put him back in jail, said people familiar with the matter.
A secret investigation by a small group of executives there resulted in his arrest. Since then, the company has been buffeted by the fallout. Sales and profit are down, infighting has led to the departure of several executives—including the CEO—and the 20-year-old partnership with Renault is on the rocks.
The Japanese government has asked Lebanon to cooperate in investigating Mr. Ghosn’s escape.
On Wednesday, Mr. Ghosn criticized the performance of the two companies he once led. Both companies’ share prices have suffered sharply since his arrest. Mr. Ghosn said that before the arrest, he was in talks to bring Fiat Chrysler Automobile NV into the auto alliance he had forged between Renault and Nissan.
Details of the Escape
0:00 / 1:14
Details of the Escape
How Carlos Ghosn fled from Tokyo, allegedly with the help of two American security consultants, Michael Taylor and George-Antoine Zayek, and arrived in Lebanon.
He criticized executives at those two car makers for missing a chance for a tie-up, and allowing Fiat Chrysler to agree to merge instead with Renault’s French rival, Peugeot maker PSA Group. That deal came together last year after a proposal by Fiat to merge with Renault faltered.
“The alliance missed the unmissable,” he said. A spokesperson for Fiat Chrysler wasn’t immediately available for comment.
As Mr. Ghosn answered questions from reporters, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Lebanon’s state prosecutor had ordered him to appear before court for questioning Thursday. The summons came after Japan requested, through international police organization Interpol, a “red notice” arrest notice.
According to NNA, Mr. Ghosn will be asked to provide his testimony about the contents of the notice, which accused Mr. Ghosn of committing crimes on Japanese soil and requests his detention. Lebanon isn’t required to detain Mr. Ghosn after the hearing, and the government has indicated it wasn’t considering legal moves against him.
Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com and Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
No it means that the Japanese court system notoriously is closed and disadvantageous for the accused. This problem existed before this guy. The Japanese system isn't like the US where the court is a place to prove your innocence. There is a lot of attributes where it's like a show trial as judges heavily favor prosecutors.
This is regardless of this particular dudes guilt. No human system is 99% error free. It's foolish to think so.
I would have just let that nikka go. Look at his eyebrows, you just know he'll say some diabolical shyt like he trained and mastered every martial art known to man and you are a joke that he doesn't find humor in, then proceed to karate chop a pressure point that reverses your blood flow and have an orchestra softly play some evil theme while he laughs like a maniac until your head explodes from his fatal chop gifted to him from Buddha himself while cherry blossom leaves blow around in the background 
Usagi Yojimbo got it, I hit a cigar on occasion but I don't want that smoke.
Usagi Yojimbo got it, I hit a cigar on occasion but I don't want that smoke.
I just read up on dude, and it’s hilarious how adults end up mirroring our parents so perfectly. His own dad shot somebody when he was young, and Ghosn’s father ran and moved his family half way cross the planet.
Now the son has fcked up in Japan and moved his own family across the planet to escape jail
Now It’s probably a bad idea to hire anybody with the last nameGhosn. Cause you just know his grand kids are gonna pull a similar stunt also.
Now the son has fcked up in Japan and moved his own family across the planet to escape jail
Now It’s probably a bad idea to hire anybody with the last nameGhosn. Cause you just know his grand kids are gonna pull a similar stunt also.
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I would have just let that nikka go. Look at his eyebrows, you just know he'll say some diabolical shyt like he trained and mastered every martial art known to man and you are a joke that he doesn't find humor in, then proceed to karate chop a pressure point that reverses your blood flow and have an orchestra softly play some evil theme while he laughs like a maniac until your head explodes from his fatal chop gifted to him from Buddha himself while cherry blossom leaves blow around in the background
Breh, you need to get yourself a comic strip or something. The storyboard for this would be
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he is right about the japanese legal system 