Unreal Story — The CEO Of Nissan Escapes Japan Before His Embezzlement Trial By Having Paramilitary Operatives Pose As Musicians, Stuff Him In A Concert Equipment Box, And Sneak Him Onto A Private Jet To Beirut
This is the best story that not enough people are talking about. Which, I don't really blame you, I get that the threat of World War 3 is kind of taking up a lot of the media's attention. But if you have a few minutes free and want to read about something other than death and destruction, I HIGHLY recommend checking out everything you can about Carlos Ghosn and his escape from Japan.
I've read through like, 35 articles at this point, and I've crafted this little TL;DR to give you all the relevant, awesome details you need to get the gist of the story on your next poop break:
Carlos Ghosn was the CEO of Nissan and a "legendary auto executive" (according to Forbes) known for previously turning around Renault. Here he is next to a sick Clio:
He was also allegedly a legendary thief and embezzler. He was accused of A) secretly funneling more than $140 million into his retirement account B) concealing more than $90 million of his salary from the public C) failing to report another $80 million of salary D) putting one of his personal debts on the company E) directly causing profits to drop and costing 12,500+ employees their jobs. I think there was like an F, G, H, and J also but those are the highlights/the ones I can understand as an English major who stepped foot in the B-school one time and one time only (to give a presentation on gun safety to a class as part of my punishment for being involved in a dorm-room bb gun shooting misunderstanding.)
Anyway that's why this guy was in trouble. He had a big trial coming up for all this shit and was out on bail.
He won't be making it to that trial (anytime soon at least) because of what happened next:
He paid ex-paramilitary officers to pose as musicians, carry a bunch of music equipment into his hotel room, and stuff him IN THIS BOX (with air-holes drilled in the bottom) to carry him out and into the car.
From there they went to the airport — an airport they selected specifically after months of researching more than 10 and looking for security holes, because they realized Kansai International's baggage-scanning equipment for private jets was too small for luggage over a certain size (such as a music box with a human man inside of it).
He sneaks onto a jet in the box, flies to Turkey, hops into a car, drives down the runway to another waiting jet, and flies to Beirut where A) he has citizenship and B) they don't have extradition.
UNREAL. Being rich is fucking awesome. Look at what money allows you to do! Look at this operation!!
10-15 operatives on a professional exfiltration team. 20 trips to Japan and 10 airports scouted and researched. People paid off ALL along the way so that there is no record of his stopover in Istanbul whatsoever. A plan that makes Ocean's 11 look like child's play.
Millions of dollars for the escape and millions of dollars in reward money. No jail. Doing donuts in a tricked-out Altima on the streets of Beirut, middle finger out the window at the SEC.
Ok, time's up. Hope that caught you up quickly on what is going to be the best Netflix documentary of 2021.
(Story details linked throughout via The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NY Post)