London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Fugitive ex-Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn says he fled Japan to escape 'injustice'

Carlos Ghosn, the ousted chairman of Japanese automaker Nissan, said in a statement on Tuesday that he’s left Japan and is now in Lebanon.

Ghosn was awaiting trial on criminal charges in Japan.

Ghosn entered Lebanon legally and will not face any legal consequences, Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security said on Tuesday, according to the state news agency NNA.

Under house arrest and 24-hour surveillance, ousted Nissan chairman became an international fugitive when he reportedly hid inside a large musical instrument case Sunday and smuggled himself out of Japan to flee criminal prosecution there.

Ghosn’s wife, Carole, whom he hasn’t seen since his arrest more than a year ago, orchestrated his dramatic escape, according to The Guardian. He was aided by a band of Gregorian musicians, who were hired to perform at a dinner party at his home in Tokyo, and a team of former special forces officers, the paper reported, citing Lebanese TV news channel MTV for some of the details.

After the performance, Ghosn tucked himself inside one of the cases, which was transported to a small local airport, where a private plane took him to Istanbul, Turkey, the British paper reported. The Guardian said he appears to have boarded a Bombardier Challenger private jet bound for Lebanon, where he arrived before dawn on Monday.

The Brazil-born auto titan was raised in Beirut and is a citizen of Brazil, France and Lebanon. As a citizen, he’s protected from extradition from Lebanon. Local authorities said he legally entered the country and wouldn’t face any repercussions, according to local media reports.

Ghosn was a giant in the auto industry. A dynamic executive credited with turning around the Japanese manufacturer, Ghosn was arrested in November 2018 and charged with multiple financial misdeeds while running Nissan. He and his wife have maintained his innocence and fought for his release from the Japanese justice system over the past year.

“I have not fled justice - I have escaped injustice and political persecution. I can now finally communicate freely with the media, and look forward to starting next week,” Ghosn said in a statement confirming his arrival in Lebanon.

He said he 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, in flagrant disregard of Japan’s legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold.”

Ghosn’s lead attorney in Japan, Junichiro Hironaka, told reporters that he was “surprised and baffled” by his client’s escape, the Financial Times reported.

Hironaka said his legal team still held all of Ghosn’s passports and last saw him on Christmas Day with an agreement to meet Jan. 7 to discuss his upcoming trial, according to the Financial Times.

“If this [escape] is true, we have to assume that this is a breach of bail conditions,” Hironaka said. “His act is unforgivable and a betrayal of Japan’s justice system.”

Japan’s Ministry of Justice didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on Ghosn’s statement.

Lebanese media said that Ghosn arrived in the country by private jet from Turkey and the newspaper Annahar reported that caretaker State Minister Salim Jreissati said he entered with a French passport, according to Bloomberg.

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber tweeted on Tuesday that “Beirut sources saying [Ghosn] hid in a box designed for a musical instrument.”


The last time Carole Ghosn saw her husband was the day of his second arrest in April when a team of 20 Japanese prosecutors stormed the couple’s apartment in Tokyo at 5:50 a.m. and hauled him away.

“They checked everything. They took pictures of everything,”

Carole Ghosn later told CNBC in September that the upcoming criminal trial in Japan against her husband shows a “dark side” of the nation and bias against foreign executives.

“I think my husband doesn’t look like is going to get a fair trial, the way they are behaving, the way that they are treating him compared to Japanese like [former Nissan CEO Hiroto] Saikawa.”

The former Nissan chairman was ousted and arrested a little over a year ago after Saikawa, who was CEO at the time, accused him and another executive of a litany of financial misdeeds.

Saikawa abruptly resigned in September after an internal investigation found that he also allegedly pocketed excess pay. Nissan accused Ghosn and former Director Greg Kelly of concealing more than $327 million in payments to themselves and other executives -$187 million in nondisclosed compensation and $140 million in improper expenditures, according to a five-page summary of Nissan’s internal investigation released in September.

Ghosn was subsequently removed from his positions at French automaker Renault and the fragile Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance.

Saikawa was allowed to resign in September after an internal investigation found that he received improper payments that weren’t disclosed to shareholders.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×