The former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA Carlos Ghosn who was about to face the first of two trials in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct and raiding corporate resources for personal gain reportedly fled to Lebanon.
Ghosn somehow evaded round-the-clock manned and video surveillance and heavy restrictions on his freedom of movement. He also released an email on Tuesday from Beirut decrying the “injustice and political persecution” of the Japanese judicial system. He also denied all the allegations levied against him.
“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,” Ghosn said in a statement.
In one speculative account, which cited no sources, Lebanese television station MTV reported that Ghosn smuggled himself out of Japan in a large musical instrument box after a Christmas band visited his residence in Tokyo. He was then shipped out of the country and later entered Lebanon from Turkey on a private plane.
A detailed report in the French daily Le Monde, citing unidentified sources, reported that Carole Ghosn organized the escape with the help of his wife’s brothers and their contacts in Turkey and that he entered Lebanon with an ID card. He may have decided to flee because of new information Japanese authorities could have obtained from a Swiss bank and from offshore centers including Dubai, the newspaper reported.
The former CEO has citizenship in Lebanon, France, and Brazil. Although all his passports were confiscated by the Japanese, a Lebanese newspaper Annahar reported that Ghosn entered the country with a French passport. Meanwhile, a report that Ghosn met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun was denied by an official at the presidency. The French foreign ministry, for its part, said it doesn’t know how Ghosn pulled off the caper. Lebanon’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Ghosn entered the country legally and it was unaware how he fled Japan and arrived in Beirut.
Ghosn’s vanishing act has trended on Twitter and inspired a fair amount of wordplay, as in “Ghosn with the Wind” and “Ghosn, Ghosn Gone.”
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