Inside Carlos Ghosn's great escape

How a corporate chieftain fled Japan

Carlos Ghosn.
(Image credit: -/AFP via Getty Images)

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One of Japan's most celebrated businessmen has become "the world's most famous fugitive," said Matthew Campbell at Bloomberg. On Dec. 29, Carlos Ghosn, the ousted leader of Nissan and Renault, pulled off a cinematic escape while awaiting trial on charges related to executive compensation and use of company resources. Ghosn felt he had been railroaded and held "hostage" by the Japanese legal system; believing that "his prospects of proving his innocence in Japan were dismal," he evaded guards at his home in Tokyo and hopped a bullet train to Osaka before boarding a private jet bound for Beirut. Ghosn's lawyers had taken his travel documents, but Ghosn — who is a citizen of Brazil, France, and Lebanon — had two French passports and was allowed to keep one in a case with a combination lock that could be easily cracked. A group of "between 10 and 15 people" worked for months on a plan for extraction, said Nick Kostov at The Wall Street Journal, one that included help from a former U.S. Green Beret. They "visited at least 10 Japanese airports" to find the weakest security measures. "Luggage too large for X-ray scanning is supposed to be opened by security staff," but one "large black box, generally used for concert equipment," must have eluded their notice. Ghosn was inside, and breathing, thanks to holes drilled in the bottom.

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