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Friday, March 29, 2024

How Carlos Ghosn Escaped Japan | Screen Written

Credit: Vanity Fair
Duration: 11:39s 0 shares 3 views

How Carlos Ghosn Escaped Japan | Screen Written
How Carlos Ghosn Escaped Japan | Screen Written

Reporter and Vanity Fair writer, May Jeong, tells the story of how ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn escaped house arrest in Japan in late 2019.

May's account of the story is based on her interview with the former Green Beret that helped Ghosn flee to Lebanon.

- When I first heard this story,the thing that occurredto me was that wow, it hasall the elements of a Hollywood thriller:a villain, a good guy,a plot that clips along.Obviously someone's gonnamake a movie out of this.[tense music]My name is May Jeong.I am a special correspondentat Vanity Fair Magazineand this is the storyof how Carlos Ghosn escaped from Japan.[typewriter keys clicking]It's the Spring of 2019, CarlosGhosn, the CEO of Nissan isunder house arrest in Tokyo, Japan.He's awaiting trial for avariety of financial crimesincluding embezzlement,using company resourcesto fund a lavish lifestyle,he has apartments inBrazil, Lebanon, Tokyo as well, in Japan.So house arrest is especiallydifficult for Ghosn,a man who has enjoyed various privileges,of which include beingable to move around freely.He is not doing very well.Since his arrest, the Japanesecriminal justice system hascome under scrutiny, theconviction rate is 99.4%,which is meant to be ahigher conviction ratethan the conviction rate in North Korea.He's realized that, youknow, it's entirely possiblethat I might be forced to stay in Tokyofor possibly all of my natural lifeand then out of the bluehe receives a phone callfrom an acquaintance.He's a man we'll call Ali, Ali calls Ghosnand explains that, "I actuallyknow a guy whose job is"to get people out of sticky situations,"would you be interested?"Ghosn of course says,"By all means, go ahead."He is kind of anxiously excited,this is the only shot he thinkshe has for leaving Japan.Meanwhile in America, aman named Michael Taylor,a former member of theAmerican Special Forces isgoing about his day whenhe receives a phone callfrom the same Ali.Ali is an old acquaintance of Taylor,they have met many moonsago in Iraq during the war,Taylor had helped Ali brieflyand hadn't heard from himin 10 years and was quitesurprised to hear from him.Ali goes, "Listen, we gota guy, he's close to us,"he's in trouble, can you help him out?""You know, it depends, Ineed more information."Ali is being cageyand keeps proddingTaylor for a yes or a no.Ali is unwilling to provideany more information,forcing Taylor to go offon his own to conducthis own research.Taylor has since leftthe military, has enteredthe private contracting world,which a lot of military men do.You know, he gets thesephone calls all the time.All Taylor knows is thatthe man is Lebanese,very well off and is in troubleand it turns out that with those criteria,it's actually not too hard to find outthat the man in questionmight be Carlos Ghosn.Once Taylor figures thisout, he calls Ali back.Taylor ends up meeting with Carole Ghosn,Carlos Ghosn's wife, in Beirut in Lebanonand this is where Carolestarts explaining to Taylorher version of events, whichis that her husband has beenunjustly persecuted in Japanand everything that's happened to him isa kind of a corporate ployto get him out of atraditionalJapanese company that has always beenvery homogenous for a very long time.Carole is also the one who tells Taylorabout the Japanesecriminal justice system.Taylor goes away and startsdoing his own researchand he is quite stunned by what he sees,he realizes thathere's an opportunity forme to right a kind of wrong.Then he calls Ali back andsays, "Yes, I'll do it,"I'll take the job."So the first thing that Taylor does isto start to assemble a team.He begins by calling his old Army buddiesand he recruits everyone, fromexperts in airport security,IT and police.He's recruiting as if for a heist movie,he has his team now, he has a deputy,they're working to figureout what needs to be done.There's only really two ways out of Japan:by sea or by air.They decide against the sea optionbecause A, it would take too longand B, because Taylor believes thatGhosn is unfit for travelfor that length of time.So that leaves him withair travel, they areunable to fly commercialbecause Carlos Ghosn isin fact a household nameand would be recognized,which leaves them withthe private jet option.So Taylor and his men arecalling around all the privatejet companies in the worldto see if they might beopen to harboring a fugitiveand most of them correctly, you know,politely at times tell them noand then they chanceupon a company that hasa certain reputation, aTurkish private jet companythat has been known towork in Venezuela,working around the American sanctionsand Taylor thinks, youknow, this might be our guy.They give them a call and thejet company comes back saying,"You know, we've done this before."How can we be of service?"The next piece of the puzzle ishow do you smuggle outa grown manwho weighs 165 poundsand it turns out thateventually you get to a box.What Taylor does is he getstwo concert speaker boxes custom madethat would typically fit a concert speakerand he ensures that bothof them are big enoughfor Carlos Ghosn to fit intoand with that, they're ready.So the day of the escape arrives, Taylorand his associate, GeorgeZayek, an old friend who isalso a colleague, flies from Dubaito Japan, specifically to Osaka Airport.The private terminal theredoes not have a scannerthat is big enough for thecargo boxes to fit through.And of course, this waspart of Taylor's plan.When they arrive in Osaka,they take the two cargo boxesand load them on to a van.The van takes Taylor andZayek to a nearby hotel,where they drop off theboxes, change clothesand head for a train heading for Tokyo.So on the train to Tokyo,Taylor's phone beginsan unexpected software updateand his first thought is,"I wonder if the NSA knows,I bet they're on to me,"and this is obviously a huge problembecause without his phone, he hasno way of keeping in communicationwith the rest of his team.So meanwhile, Carlos Ghosnleaves his Tokyo apartmentwearing a surgical mask and a toqueand heads for the Grand Hyatt Hoteland the police weren't suspiciousbecause the Grand Hyattis one of the few placeswhere Ghosn, who remainsunder house arrest,is allowed to go.Once Ghosn arrives at the hotel,he follows instructions that havebeen given to him days prior,which is to go upstairs to a roomwhere Taylor and Zayekare waiting for him.Ghosn changes into new clothesand the three men leave the Hyatt,heading for the trainstation to return to Osaka.Once they get to the hotel in Osaka,this is where Ghosn climbsinto one of the two boxesand the now two men arereturned to the airport.Taylor very deliberately arriveswith only 20 minutes tospare and as a result,they are whisked throughsecurity and customs.The boxes are not X-rayedbecause as Taylor prescientlysuspected, they don't havescanners big enough tofit those boxes through.So once they get ontothe plane, Taylor goesback to the luggage hold,he cracks open the box that Ghosn is in,he takes a towel that islying nearbyand props it open andwhispers to Ghosn that,"I will be back for you,once it's wheels-up."At 11:30 the flight leaves,it takes off from Osakaand flies through Chineseand Russian airspace,which is a specific askthat Taylor submitted,knowing that there isno extradition treatybetween China and Russia and Japan.So soon after the flight takes off,Taylor goes back to theluggage hold to check on Ghosnand he sees that Ghosn hasalready let himself out of the boxand issitting cross-legged atop the box,grinning ear to ear.The rest of the flight isuneventful, Taylor sits guardwhile Ghosnsleeps and eats and driftsback into sleep againand eventually they land in Istanbul.Ghosn makes a connecting flight to Beirut,where his family awaits him.There are no thank yous and no goodbyes,Taylor is more interestedin getting the job done.The plan is a success,Ghosn is no longer in Japanand safely at home in Lebanon.The news of Ghosn's escape breaksin Lebanon pretty immediately.Michael Taylor's name getsout quite quickly as well.Japan, on the other hand,does not hear about this newsuntil the following Tuesday.The reason is that the CCTVcameras in front of his house isnot a live feed and it isonly checked once a weekand of course, this waspart of Taylor's plan.Once Japan learns that Ghosn has escaped,they issue a warrant for his arrest.The Interpol gets involved as well.So Taylor lays low for a while in Lebanonbut eventually he doesfly back to New England,to rural Massachusetts in early Spring.Months later inmid-May, Taylor is sound asleepand is shooken awake byhis 27 year old son, Peter.US Marshals are at the frontdoor to arrest both of themand so it transpires thatPeter Taylor had in fact beeninvolved in Carlos Ghosn'sescape, it had been Peter who hadrented the hotel room atthe Grand Hyatt in Tokyo.Unbeknownst to Taylor, theTokyo Prosecutor's Office hadsubmitted a request forextradition of both Michael Taylorand his son, Peter Taylor,and in the whole time thatMichael Taylor and PeterTaylor had been laying low,this extradition requesthad been making its waythrough all the various channels.Taylor is unsuspecting,he's shocked to his corethat he is being arrested on American soilby US authorities on a crimethat may or may not havebeen committed in Japan.He quickly assembles, him and his lawyers,a dream team of defenders butthe chances, even to them,it doesn't look great for various reasons.One being that theJapanese legal system doesmake it quite difficultfor people to post bailbut also because of the natureof Michael Taylor's alleged crime.In the end, after the great escape,the mastermind, Michael Taylorit turns out,didn't even receive a dime.This obviously surprised meand I asked him why did you do it?He told me, "De oppresso liber,"which is a Special Forces mottomeaning he was liberating the oppressed.[dramatic music]

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