How Carlos Ghosn escaped Japan: wealth and connections can literally set you free
- The celebrated businessman and former head of Nissan was on bail and potentially facing prison time
- Specialist contractors, a bullet train and private jets facilitated his flight to relative freedom
Sometime last autumn, a security contractor based in Asia took a call that he found curious. The man on the other end of the line, a long-time acquaintance and, like him, an expert in protecting VIPs and valuable cargoes in challenging environments, was looking to hire for a job in Japan.
He offered few specifics. The assignment would involve escorting someone out of the country, he said. It would pay well. And he was looking for operatives with military or police experience and, ideally, fair-skinned East Asian faces – the kind that wouldn’t stand out in Tokyo.
Just before New Year’s Eve, Ghosn, the ousted leader of Nissan Motor and Renault, completed a daring escape from Tokyo, where he was facing criminal charges that could have put him in prison for more than a decade. Despite being under intense surveillance while out on bail, with a camera trained on his front door and undercover agents tailing him when he left his house, Ghosn somehow made it to Lebanon, where he lived for most of his adolescence and is a citizen.
For Ghosn, who had spent more than 100 days in solitary confinement in a Tokyo jail and was contemplating trial in a country where prosecutors almost never lose, it was a stunning coup. Lebanon has a policy against extraditing its citizens, and as one of the most successful members of the country’s diaspora, he is a national hero, with friends who include some of the biggest names in local business and politics. His face is on a postage stamp.
Safely in Beirut, he could finally attempt to rebut the allegations against him, which he argues were the result of a conspiracy between nationalist factions, both within Nissan and the Japanese government, that were determined to take him out of play. And, most important for someone who spent the better part of two decades building and cultivating his public image, he could set to work restoring his reputation as a great man of business, maybe even preparing a comeback.