The Biggest Escape
About
A popular corporate and a familiar face across the country gets convicted for a crime. The way he escaped from a country under the condition of house arrest with all the surveillance mechanisms in place and without a passport is remarkable and known as the biggest escape in Japan.
There are many big automobile industries across the world run by experienced executives and businessmen. These industries produce cars, trucks, and other vehicles as consumable products. The profit of these organizations depends upon sales as well as their brand value.
Nissan is one such big automobile industry in Japan manufacturing vehicles catering to the luxury and commercial segments. They have their brand value, producing different types of vehicles that is loved and admired by consumers across the world.
This story is about Carlos Ghosn, the Ex-CEO and the boss of Nissan, the way he was convicted and arrested, then released on bail, and later his stunning escape from Japan to avoid punishment without a passport.
The Beginning
Carlos Ghosn was a big name in the automobile industry for a very long time. He worked in Nissan for about 20 years and played an instrumental role in bringing back the organization from potential bankruptcy to its present status.
He was born to Lebanese parents in 1954 at Porto Velho in Brazil. In 1960 their entire family relocated to Lebanon. After completing the formal education from Lebanon, he went to France for his advanced studies.
He was launched into the corporate world in 1978 when he joined the tyre giant Michelin. He worked in Michelin for 18 years residing in America. Eventually, he joined the French automobile company, Renault, in 1996.
Nissan at that time was struggling financially, and their debt was mounting substantially. They were producing too many models of cars and not able to find adequate customers for their models. To gain stability they started negotiating with other automotive companies, but no company showed any interest.
The Approach
Renault bought 35% of Nissan’s shares in 1999 and sent Carlos Ghosn to assist the management and help bring a turnaround to the company’s fortune. Carlos was a capable leader and a corporate; he soon implemented a cost-cutting mechanism and reduced the number of models that were produced earlier.
Soon enough, Carlos was appointed the CEO of Nissan, and his endeavour paid off and brought profit to Nissan. Eventually, he turned Nissan into a global empire with the collaboration of Renault and Nissan, and later another big automotive giant, Mitsubishi was also included in Nissan’s empire.
The picture of Carlos and his organizational skills in reviving Nissan’s fortune was published in all the leading tabloids in Japan. His face became famous among corporate’s all over the world. He used to live a king’s sized life and was the highest-paid CEO of Japan during its time.
Carlos Ghosn had all the luxury residing in Tokyo. He had acquired money and respect from subordinates. His fame also and wealth also brought in enemies. Some nationalist executives believed that Renault would eventually capture and purchase the entire of Nissan.
The Problem
Carlos Ghosn was returning from a corporate trip abroad in Nissan’s private jet in November 2018. On landing, in Japan’s Haneda International Airport, he was whisked away by three policemen. He was taken into police custody and arrested.
Carlos was astonished by his arrest. The charges levied against him were significant financial misconduct. He had made false financial statement disclosures. He was also charged with misusing Nissan’s financial resources in the middle-east and filling his pocket with millions of dollars. All the allegations were denied by Carlos Ghosn.
The Japanese executives in Nissan were concerned that Carlos would bring Nissan and Renault under one corporate umbrella, and eventually, Nissan would become a part of Renault. This worked as the backdrop of Carlos Ghosn’s arrest.
Nissan passed information retrieved from his laptop and other evidential documents to the prosecutors that eventually led to his arrest. Carlos was sent to jail in solitary confinement.
The Outcome
Carlos had applied for bail multiple times, but every time his bail plea got rejected. He was subjected to plea bargain by the prosecutors promising to reduce the sentence but he refused to accept the allegations.
Carlos prepared a new legal team to get him bailed out, and in March 2019, his bail plea was finally granted by the court on a sum of 9 million dollars with strict conditions.
The conditions included that he would have to submit all the passports to the court, he would remain under house arrest, with surveillance cameras installed at his premises monitoring him.
He was allowed to go out on the streets but should not leave Tokyo or Japan, and his activities would be under observation by plain cloth agents. He could use the limited internet only after receiving permission from his lawyer’s office.
Carlos knew about the legal system of Japan, and that he would eventually be sent to jail again for 15-20 years. So he decided to plan his escape from Japan.
Planning And Execution
The planning and the execution of the escape were taken up by Michel Taylor an American and an ex-special operative officer. He planned the entire escape that lasted six months. During this time Carlos brought a pair of jeans and shirts. In his house, he kept rehearsing the way the common man walked on the streets.
With the plan in place, on 29th Dec 2019, Carlos steps out from his house wearing jeans, a shirt, and a cap with a surgical mask like a common man. He meets two persons, and they drive him to the Grand Hyatt hotel.
Grand Hyatt hotel has multiple entries and exits. So they entered from one entrance and departed from a different one, after spending a couple of hours. They went to Shinagawa station, a busy place, and one can easily blend into the crowd.
They caught a bullet train and went to Osaka. In Osaka, all three persons went to a hotel room that was pre-booked. The room already had two big boxes used for transporting audio equipment for the concerts.
Bypassing The Security
Many rock concerts are organized, around Japan during the last weekend of the year, and people are in celebration mode. These two large musical boxes were brought from Turkey and placed in the hotel room in Osaka.
Later in the evening, two persons checked out from the hotel with these two large-sized musical boxes instead of three persons, present in the room. Carlos was hiding in a secret chamber in one of the boxes. They went with these two boxes to Kansai international airport.
As these boxes were extra-large hence they could not be scanned by the X-Ray machine. They were manually examined by the airport authorities, and they failed to detect any secret chamber inside one of the boxes and the boxes were given custom clearance.
They were then loaded to a Turkish private plane, and the flight took off from Kansai airport. After a 12 hour journey, the private jet landed at Ataturk airport in Istanbul in Turkey. Another private plane was waiting there, the boxes were quickly loaded into the second private plane, and the plane took off after some time.
The Escape
The second private plane landed in Beirut in Lebanon. That evening the world was amazed to see that Carlos Ghosn stepping out offs that plane. Japan was still unaware of this escape.
Later that day, as media reports emerged out of spotting Carlos Ghosn in Lebanon, Japan realized that their captive had already fled the country. It was an embarrassment for Japan. Despite having a strict surveillance mechanism in place, how did a man as popular as Carlos Ghosn manage to escape the country?
Carlos later revealed in a press conference that a coup of some sorts was allegedly planned for him by the nationalist executives, who did not want the merger of Renault and Nissan into a single parent company.
Japan requested Lebanon to hand over Carlos to them, but Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan, and it does not extradite its citizens. Japan later requested Interpol to serve a red corner notice for the fled fugitive that already has been served.
The fact that Lebanon will not hand over Carlos Ghosn, having a net worth is more than 120 million dollars and having so much experience in the automotive industry it is almost a foregone conclusion that Japan would never receive back its fugitive.
On request of Japan, America arrested Michel Taylor and his son for facilitating and planning his escape out of Japan. Meanwhile, Carlos Ghosn can lead a peaceful life in Lebanon fully aware that he will not be extradited to Japan to face trials.
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