Leak of Carlos Ghosn from Japan: two Americans admit their complicity

Published on : 06/14/2021 – 09:36

He had fled Japan to escape an “unfair” trial. The incredible exfiltration of former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is at the heart of the trial which opens in Tokyo on Monday, June 14. Two people are on trial there for alleged complicity: Michael Taylor, 60, a former member of the American special forces converted into private security, and his son Peter Taylor, 28.

Both arrived in court handcuffed, dressed in black jackets and white shirts, and masked due to the Covid-19. Looking calm, Michael and Peter Taylor did not dispute the facts presented by a prosecutor.

They were arrested in May 2020 in the United States under arrest warrants issued by Japan. After exhausting all possible remedies, they were extradited in March to Japan to stand trial. The two men face up to three years in prison.

On the morning of December 31, 2019, Japan learned of the flight to Lebanon of its most famous defendant: Carlos Ghosn, the deposed big boss of Nissan, Renault and their automotive alliance, until then on bail pending his death. trial for alleged financial embezzlement, with the ban on leaving the country.

Two days earlier, the Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian had quietly left his home in Tokyo to reach Osaka (west) by taking the shinkansen (Japanese high-speed train), wearing a hat, mask and glasses to avoid being recognized.

The two individuals accompanying him were identified from CCTV footage: Michael Taylor and George Antoine Zayek, a man of Lebanese origin who remains nowhere to be found.

One of the “best orchestrated leaks in recent history”

The three men joined a hotel near Kansai International Airport, near Osaka. Investigators believe that Carlos Ghosn then slipped into a large box of audio equipment, pierced with small holes to allow him to breathe.

Impersonating musicians, his two accomplices were able to load their luggage without going through security checks at the airport, as was then allowed in Japan for private jets.

They flew to Istanbul, from where Carlos Ghosn took another private plane to Lebanon where he still resides. Peter Taylor, present in Tokyo just before the leak and who had met Carlos Ghosn several times in Japan in the previous months, left the country alone on a plane to China. A document from US prosecutors speaks of “one of the most brazen and best orchestrated leaks in recent history.”

Carlos Ghosn is also the subject of an arrest warrant from Japan with a request for arrest by Interpol, but remains out of reach in Lebanon, a country which does not extradite its nationals.

The one who declared that he had “not fled justice” but “escaped injustice” remained very discreet about the conditions of his exfiltration to “protect those who took the risk” of helping him. However, he assures that he did not involve members of his family.

Carlos Ghosn targeted by several investigations

In February, three Turkish nationals were convicted by an Istanbul court in the case of the flight of Carlos Ghosn: an official of the Turkish private jet rental company MNG Jet and two pilots. Four other people were acquitted.

In addition, Carlos Ghosn’s leak did not prevent the opening, last year, of a criminal trial in Tokyo over deferred compensation totaling several tens of millions of dollars that the Nissan boss was supposed to receive. his retirement, but without this being mentioned in the group’s stock market reports.

A former Nissan legal official, the American Greg Kelly, arrested on the same day as Carlos Ghosn in November 2018, finds himself alone on the dock, Nissan being tried as a legal person.

Risking up to ten years in prison, Greg Kelly denies having acted illegally in this trial with often very technical debates and whose last hearing is scheduled for early July, while Nissan has pleaded guilty. While being engaged in several civil litigation against Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, who claims his innocence across the board, is also concerned by various investigations in France.

French investigating judges recently interviewed him for several days in Beirut. But Carlos Ghosn cannot be indicted outside French territory.

With AFP