Initial arrest On 19 November 2018, Tokyo district prosecutors arrested Ghosn at 4:30 p.m. upon his re-entry into Japan aboard a private jet that had come from Lebanon, for questioning over allegations of false accounting. Ghosn's top aide, Greg Kelly, a Nissan director and former head of human resources, was also arrested upon his arrival from the U.S. that day. While the allegations remained unproven in court, with due legal process pending, at the same news conference, Saikawa "expressed disappointment, indignation, and despair at Ghosn's conduct, which included using company funds for personal investments and misusing corporate assets" and also said, "This is an act that cannot be tolerated by the company... It is sufficient grounds for his dismissal." Nissan funds were used to purchase Ghosn's Paris apartment in 2005, and Zi-A funds were used to purchase his $5 million beachfront Rio apartment in 2012 and his Beirut mansion, which, with renovations, cost over $15 million. Leaks to the media said that Ghosn had planned to call a vote to fire Nissan CEO Saikawa and reinstate Kelly (who had semi-retired to the U.S. in 2015) to active service at the scheduled board meeting. Ghosn and Kelly were reportedly arrested on information provided by an unidentified non-Japanese executive in Nissan's legal department, in the second deal ever struck under Japan's recently introduced
plea bargaining system. The introduction of those charges prevented Ghosn's release on bail later the same day, because the new charges permitted an additional 10–20 days of incarceration prior to a bail hearing. In return for a personal letter of credit from Juffali to Ghosn during the 2008 crisis, which served as bank-demanded
collateral for Ghosn's swap contract, Nissan indirectly paid $14.7 million from an internal discretionary fund known as the "CEO Reserve" to a wholly owned Juffali company in four installments between 2009 and 2012, although the internal documentation did not specify the ultimate recipient. Ghosn's imprisonment was set to end on 11 January 2019. That day, Ghosn was indicted on two additional charges: aggravated breach of trust and understating his income, once again extending his imprisonment. As a result, he could remain in jail for months more before a trial would take place. Ghosn again appealed the denial of bail from 8 January 2019 and offered to meet greater restrictions and higher guarantees of appearance in return for his release, including wearing an ankle bracelet and posting his Nissan stock as collateral. Additionally, on 14 January 2019 Ghosn's wife Carole published a letter that she wrote to
Human Rights Watch protesting against his treatment in detainment. The Japanese term
hitojichi shihō ("hostage justice") has been brought up in some media reports. Takashi Takano, one of Ghosn's lawyers stated that the Japanese judicial system is a
country risk.
Further developments On 11 January 2019 José Muñoz, Nissan's chief performance officer and head of its China operations, resigned from the company. Muñoz, considered to be a close ally to Ghosn and a possible successor as CEO of Renault and Nissan, had been a "person of interest" in Nissan's internal investigation, with which he was reported to be uncooperative. The
Reuters Japan news service reported that Nissan may file suit against Ghosn personally. At first the French government and
Renault had been reported to be standing behind Ghosn during his imprisonment, on the presumption that Ghosn is innocent until proven guilty. Renault possibly worried about Nissan taking the chance to use the power vacuum at Renault to reshape the alliance's balance of power. After the French government called for leadership change and his bail requests were rejected by the Japanese courts, Ghosn finally agreed to step down. He resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault on 24 January 2019. On 30 January 2019, Ghosn said the charges were "plot and treason" by executives at Nissan who opposed the relationship with Renault and a future plan that was in the works to integrate Nissan,
Mitsubishi and Renault. In mid-February 2019, Ghosn's lead
counsel Motonari Otsuru stepped down and was replaced by Jun'ichirō Hironaka, who has a record of success in a number of high-profile cases.
Bail In early March 2019, Ghosn was granted a request for bail in a Tokyo court. This was his third bail request, and the first by his new legal team under Hironaka. The court set bail at 1 billion yen (about US$9 million) subject to stringent conditions. He was not allowed to travel abroad, and had to remain at a given address under 24-hour camera surveillance, with no internet access. He was released on 6 March 2019. On 3 April 2019, Ghosn tweeted that he was "ready to tell the truth" and that he would hold a conference on 11 April 2019. He was re-arrested for the fourth time early on 4 April 2019 over new suspicions of financial misconduct concerning alleged dealings via
Oman. Ghosn released a statement claiming the arrest was "outrageous and arbitrary". Until that point in time he had been held for 108 days since he was first arrested in November 2018. On 8 April 2019, during an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, Nissan shareholders voted to remove Ghosn from the company board. Shareholders also voted to remove Ghosn's former right-hand man Greg Kelly, and to appoint Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard as a director. The Japanese court rejected an appeal filed by Ghosn's lawyers, and approved an initial 10 days detention for Ghosn, until 22 April 2019. He was released in late April, but confined to strict house arrest, including having no contact with his wife for four months.
Investigations in other countries In June 2019, Renault published that in an internal audit they had uncovered 11 million euros in questionable expenses by Ghosn, which was followed by the French state opening its own investigation into his actions. In July Renault's headquarters in
Boulogne-Billancourt were searched by 20 police personnel in relation to this case. In August 2019, his wife Carole appealed to President
Emmanuel Macron of France to intercede on behalf of her husband with Japanese leader
Shinzo Abe at the
45th G7 summit held from 24 to 26 August at the French town of
Biarritz. According to
The New York Times, the settlement all but ended Ghosn's career as a global business executive. Ghosn later confirmed these reports through a statement released by his press representative in New York. In his statement, Ghosn claimed that he would "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied." The three then took a
bullet train from
Shinagawa to
Osaka and arrived at a hotel near
Kansai International Airport just after 20:00. A few hours later, two men left the hotel carrying large containers, including an audio equipment box where Ghosn was hidden. The men then boarded a
Bombardier Global Express private jet with Turkish registration TC-TSR. The large box carrying Ghosn was never x-rayed or checked by customs officials, because it was too big to fit inside the x-ray machine; Within an hour of the plane's landing, a separate private jet left for Beirut. The Lebanese Ambassador to Japan,
Nidal Yehya, denied the involvement of the Embassy of Lebanon in Ghosn's escape, but "always stressed to him that he must abide by all the conditions of his release, as decided by the Criminal Court in Tokyo".
Residence in Lebanon Following Ghosn's arrival in Lebanon, a Tokyo court granted a request by Japanese prosecutors to revoke his bail. While Japan and Lebanon are both
members of Interpol and have had diplomatic relations since 1954, there is no extradition agreement between the two countries. Japanese authorities raided Ghosn's Tokyo apartment on 2 January 2020 looking for evidence. Ghosn later addressed reports that his family, including his wife Carole, may have played a role in his departure from Japan, stating that "such speculation is inaccurate and false." On 7 January 2020, prosecutors in Japan issued an arrest warrant for Carole Ghosn on suspicion of giving false testimony during a court hearing in April 2019. Carlos Ghosn held his first press conference since leaving Japan on 8 January 2020, in which he described his imprisonment conditions, pleaded innocence, and named Nissan executives who plotted his demise. He claimed that when he left Japan, "I fled injustice and political persecution." The next day, Judge Ghassan Ouiedat, a Lebanese prosecutor, imposed a travel ban on Ghosn. After he escaped from Japan, Carlos Ghosn's Japanese lawyer and seven other members of his defense resigned. His lawyer,
Junichiro Hironaka, said his escape was a "complete surprise". On 10 February 2020, Ghosn hired former
Disney president
Michael Ovitz, co-founder of the
Creative Artists Agency, as his Hollywood agent. On 12 February 2020, Nissan launched a $90 million lawsuit against Ghosn for alleged "corrupt" actions, and on 29 February 2020, Japan's financial regulators fined Nissan 2.42 billion yen ($22 million) for underreporting remuneration of former Chairman Ghosn and other executives for years. On 8 July 2020,
The Nikkei reported that $862,500 was paid from a Paris bank account related to Ghosn to Promote Fox, a company managed by Michael Taylor, an ex-
Green Beret who helped him flee to Lebanon. Ghosn's house in Lebanon sustained damage following the
August 2020 Beirut explosion, which occurred 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the residence. On 3 November 2020, Lebanon's prosecutor general decided not to charge Ghosn for visiting Israel in 2008 because the
statute of limitations had expired. Previously, some Lebanese lawyers wanted Ghosn prosecuted over his 2008 trip to
Israel as the chairman of Renault-Nissan to meet
Better Place founder
Shai Agassi, which they claim violated the
Arab League boycott of Israel. Also in the same month Nissan fired its global general counsel Ravinder Passi, who claimed to have whistle-blown improper handling of the Ghosn case inside Nissan. On 23 November 2020, a panel of human rights experts working with the
United Nations concluded that Ghosn's arrest and detention in Japan were "fundamentally unfair". The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also stated that the Japanese government should give Ghosn "compensation" and "other reparations" due to the arrest and detention conditions in November 2018. Despite the fact that the
Nelson Mandela Rules set a 15-day limit on how long prisoners can be kept in isolation, Kelly was held in solitary confinement for 37 days before he was granted bail, and Ghosn for 108 days. The Taylors were in solitary confinement for more than 100 days each. "The Carlos Ghosn case, including Greg Kelly and the Taylors, is an aberration," said William Cleary, an expert on Japanese law with a doctorate in criminal procedure. In December 2020, it was reported that French investigators would meet with Ghosn in January 2021 as part of a separate investigation of expenses covered by a Dutch subsidiary of Renault and Nissan. Ghosn is under two investigations in France, one that is focused on suspicious transactions between Renault and a distributor in Oman, as well as another investigation into alleged illegal payments for private trips and events paid by Renault-Nissan's Netherlands-based holding company, RNBV. In a January 2021 interview, Ghosn questioned why France was questioning him over the charges, while Japan did not, and denied the charges. In February 2024, four senior Nissan workers were charged with stealing documents, files, and electronic devices from Ghosn's
Beirut home and office. Michael Taylor had conducted similar international rescue operations in the past. On 8 May, Turkey charged seven people accused of helping Ghosn flee to Lebanon via Istanbul. On 20 May, United States authorities arrested Michael and Peter Taylor on suspicion of helping Ghosn escape. On 30 October 2020, the US agreed to extradite the Taylors to Japan. In June 2021, Michael Taylor and his son Peter pleaded guilty in Tokyo to helping Ghosn escape from Japan in December 2019. The Taylors later expressed their regret and apologized to the Japanese. It was revealed that Ghosn paid the Taylors more than $1 million for their services, via bank transfers and cryptocurrency. In July 2021, the Taylors were convicted and sentenced in Japan for aiding Ghosn. Michael was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, while his son received a sentence of 20 months. In October 2022, the two were transferred to the United States by the Federal Bureau of Prisons after the two governments agreed to allow the Taylors to serve out the remainder of their sentences in the United States.
Further prosecutions In April 2022, France issued an international warrant for Ghosn's arrest, in addition to four other individuals who administrated the Omani company Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, in which the latter had allegedly helped Ghosn to funnel millions of dollars of Renault funds through them for his personal use, including the purchase of a yacht. Ghosn said the timing of this warrant was "suspicious" and later mentioned that he wanted to stand trial on charges of financial wrongdoing to clear his name. In October 2023, a Lebanese court ruled that Ghosn and his wife must vacate his residence, valued at $19 million, in
Achrafieh, Beirut within a month. The decision was taken four years after Phoinos Investment accused him of "violation of private property" and residing there without legal basis. Ghosn appealed the verdict, claiming that the company was affiliated with Nissan, and that the property was purchased according to a signed agreement with the latter which granted him the right to live there. The eviction order was halted until the lawsuit with Phoinos is concluded in December 2023. ==Personal life==