Carlos Ghosn‘s daring escape from the physical boundaries of the Japanese legal system has already been entered into the annals of automotive history and filed under “legendary” status. Guilty or not, the former Nissan executive outdid most Hollywood heist movies by sneaking out of the country while still under government supervision. Nobody in the media can help themselves from discussing it, not even this outlet.
However, he’s far from being free. He’s still wanted in Japan for alleged financial misconduct and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has issued a Red Notice — which is a global bulletin for authorities to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Hopefully he’s famous enough for cops to identify from memory, as Interpol neglected to issue an accompanying photograph of the man.
That may be because the group only recently added him to its most wanted list. As of Wednesday, Interpol’s website only states the defamed Ghosn is “Wanted by Japan” and lists the financial charges he’s on the hook for in Asia. The filing also lists his age, gender, nationality, and spoken languages — all par for the course. But you’d think they’d have been able to snag a photo of him from somewhere.
Despite the Red Notice going into effect, Ghosn’s status as a Lebanese citizen will likely keep him from getting scooped up in Beirut and shipped back to Japan. That’s presuming he stays put in Lebanon or another nation that wouldn’t bother with extradition.
Bloomberg, which first reported the notice, said Interpol is always careful to stress the document is not the same as an official arrest warrant — though it did not offer comment about Mr. Ghosn.
[Image: Frederic Legrand/Shutterstock]
Such a tacky guy, guilty on account of his eyebrows!
The story he tells rings true to me. Even if it isn’t, I’d try to avoid a legal system with a 100% conviction rate as well!
By not including a mug shot, Interpol might be sending a message. The heavy-handed operation of the Japanese legal system is not unknown to other countries, and for an alleged financial crime, the treatment of a high profile individual like Ghosn is extraordinary. The Ghosn case may end up being an indictment of the Japanese legal system.
We have a new Public Enemy Number One. Time for the two minutes of hate!
He fled justice using his power, money and connections, so his spot on the most wanted kist is well deserved.
“He fled justice”
Ahem, he fled a legal system, not a justice system.
Regardless of whether he did it or not, I’m with @kkop on this one- if I’d been in his shoes and I had the means then I would have got the heck out of there too.
He fled a kangaroo court and into the annals of history. The problem with statists is they seem to cling to the concept that everything is black and white when the truth is everything is many shades of gray.
He’s trying to paint himself in a robin hood light which isn’t flying for me. But, Japan kept changing the rules on him from what I could determine. IIRC, they charged him, waited 5 months before a bail hearing. Then gave bail but put conditions on seeing his family (only under court supervision), then rearrested him 2 weeks later for what amounts to another charge for roughly the same thing (putting a financial loss from his personal boat onto nissan’s books).
The falsifying corporate reports charge has a 10million yen 10 year max. That equals $91,334. Carlos remodeling homes with Nissan’s money wasn’t right, but I’m not sure they could prove that was embezzlement in any country other than Japan because it sounds like he didn’t hide it and somehow the board was asleep at the wheel or they approved it. So he was 14 months + $14MM in to this, and then they moved back trial for another 15 months.
Considering the max charges and the time involved and the strange restrictions, time served +14MM and you have to stay in Lebanon for a decade and are never employable by a multinational corporation again sounds about right.
“He’s trying to paint himself in a robin hood light which isn’t flying for me.”
Agreed- and the Japanese law enforcement and legal system are trying to paint themselves as upright and just, which isn’t flying for me.
“He’s trying to paint himself in a robin hood light which isn’t flying for me. But, Japan kept changing the rules on him from what I could determine.”
Yep.
If you watched his hour long press conference, he starts to name names and then purposely stops when it comes to JP govt but more or less alleges one of the named executives was involved with gov’t officials. That suggests a deep seated conspiracy.
lol, I did not watch his hour long press conference. This is the internet, I’ll form my deepseated opinions based on 5 minutes of googling thank you very much.
I’m more thorough than that. But I’m waiting for a transcript I can read, without having to watch his eyebrows arching as he speaks. He’s not a cat, so I’m not watching an hour-long video online.
Send Dog The Bounty Hunter! Lol!
In other news, it looks like the Edit function in comments is working again.
Interpol is going through the motions, checking the box to pacify Japan. They have other priorities.
If I was Rowan Atkinson I would be very, very worried these days…
“Most Wanted” status shows what a sham this is.
It would have been even better if he had tunneled out behind a poster of Raquel Welch.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlKZujGZi0I”
The Japanese let him get away for the simple fact he really did not nothing wrong. He basically run Nissan like a typical western executive, which the Japanese don’t find acceptable. In fact in this case they found it criminal. Ghosn ran Nissan really no differently than the way Mary Barra has run GM. In my opinion Ghosn has done a far better job than Barra.
The more I read about this case, the more I felt like, “This is bogus BS”. I would have run like he did, if I had any way of doing it. I would be shocked if he doesn’t die a very old man, in his own bed, never setting foot back in Japan.
I mean Japan isn’t the United States but nor is it Syria or Iran.
In my movie version there’s a high speed chase in a GT-R ,through a tunnel in early am hours.