The name Carlos Ghosn is unlikely to ring a bell. Even though I had read earlier accounts of his arrest in Japan for financial improprieties, it didn't ring any bell for me until the name was strung together with the words "former Nissan boss". Oh, that Carlos Ghosn. The Carlos Ghosn who:
...is accused of financial misconduct, including embezzlement and making an unauthorized multimillion-dollar payment to a Nissan dealership in Oman. He had been awaiting trial in Tokyo, released on $14 million bail in April. (Source: NPR).$14 million? Sounds pretty steep. Bail for Bernie Madoff was only $10 million. On the other hand, Raj Rajaratnam's bail for insider trading was $100 million. Bernie's in prison for life, but Raj - after 8 years in the stir - got an early release is out on parole, having traded up from a prison cell (albeit a minimum security one) to his digs on Sutton Place.
Bail for financial crimes is all about the flight risk, and apparenty Ghosn was prepared to walk away from $14 million.
So fearing that he wouldn't get a fair trial in Japan, Ghosn rung in the new year by flying the coop.
It pays to be rich!
In his case the flying the coop meant being whisked out of the country on a private plane that dropped him in Turkey, from whence he scooted off to Lebanon, where he grew up.
Passport? You may well be asking why his passport wasn't confiscated. Well, turns out they - yes, that's plural passports - were. Most of them anyway.
Japanese authorities forced Ghosn to surrender his Lebanese, Brazilian and French passports to his attorneys. But he was allowed to keep a spare French passport in a lockbox at his home, under the condition that his attorneys keep the keys. It remains unclear how the well-known auto executive evaded detection at the Osaka airport.First off, why was he allowed to keep a spare? Even under lock and key, it doesn't make all that much sense. Second off, someone who can afford to skip $14 million in bail and concoct a private-jet fueled plan to vamoose pretty much has the resources to come up with a fake passport, no?
Plus, Ghosn has been known to put on a metaphorical fake nose and mustache:
...Lebanese news outlet MTV reported: "The slightly built Nissan boss does have experience in disguises: when first released on bail in March, he walked out of the detention center disguised as a workman to avoid media."Alas, the best part of Ghosn's great escape may turn out to not be fake news. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ghosn left his house in "a large box for musical instruments after a band had played at the family home." Too good to be true! Video footage shows him walking out on his own two feet. After which he hot-footed to Lebanon, where he's now making a very public case against justice, Japanese-style:
"I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied," he said in a statement.His supporters back him up, claiming that the case against Ghosn came about because some Japanese were miffed that he was trying to combine Nissan with French automaker Renault, which I guess offended their national sense of business pride. And likely their pocketbooks.
Meanwhile, back in Japan, a number of people involved with Ghosn's flight - pilots and ground staff - have been detained.
And meanwhile meanswhile, Ghosn's back in Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. He is, however, on the Interpol Red Notice list, which means he could be arrested if he attempts to go to a country that does have an extradition agreement with Japan. So he might be stuck in Lebanon for a good long time.
Anyway, a nice little diversion of a story. May justice prevail. (Wonder if Dog the Bounty Hunter works the Lebanon-to-Japan beat?)
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