Fugitive CEO: The Carlos Ghosn Story

CNBC’s special, "Fugitive CEO: The Carlos Ghosn Story," premieres Monday, January 27th at 10P ET!

Carlos Ghosn, high profile former Nissan CEO charged with financial crimes, fled Japan in a spectacular escape worthy of a Hollywood movie. CNBC explores the getaway, and the career, of this global business superstar.

He was a global business icon - Carlos Ghosn, the Brazilian-born giant of international commerce, who penetrated one of the most insular societies in the world: the Japanese auto industry. There, he took over a proud but flailing icon, Nissan, and rescued it from almost certain failure.

How did this man, so accustomed to the spotlight, the galas and the fortune… reportedly end up in a box drilled with breathing holes, smuggled across international borders … one step ahead of the law?

Some say it’s a story of arrogance and greed. Others call it an escape from injustice. Either way, Carlos Ghosn’s getaway is one of the most fascinating business capers in modern history.


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[bryanallo]

You cannot jail someone for underreporting income he was never paid. Furthermore this is a corporate matter. Prosecutor was way out of line.

[elihancock]

Nissan was near bankruptcy when Carlos came in, and this is the way Nissan show and say thank you to a saviour.

[hayaglamazonluxe]

Regardless of what you think of Ghosn, he has guts. I also like how he appreciates his wife so much.

[theboss]

Unlike many of the CEOs that drove companies to bankrupt by their selfish lifestyle, this guy was able to save a company and make it generate billions and in return he's getting a very harsh treatment. The least they can do is just let him go and enjoy his retirement.

[arefeshghi]

One lesson for Nissan: never bite the hand that brings you back to life!

[mikhaillindan]

Ghosn is a hero, a brilliant and courageous man, bravo!

[simonpeter]

"We believe he was involved in _some unlawful events_"
Yeah, sounds like they were really on just grounds..
He's obviously innocent.

[roofyosrs]

he saved nissan from bankruptcy and brought trillions of dollars in profit for them and made it a very successful company this also applies to renault, in case he took few million dollars who cares ...wtf, i think Japanese bosses envied him because his salary was 17m/year and they were making waaaay much lower than that, if i was nissan's owner i would give him more than that because he showed that he is worth every single penny .

[Andrew-mdto]

I absolutely respect this guy. He is a high performer. Didn’t know that the Japanese system is such a joke. Expose the Japanese.

[romeowong]

If he can save himself from going down in a short period of time, he can save any companies from going down. Respect for this guy!

[tonye]

99.4 % Conviction rate wow dictator countries dream of having a a rate like that. He is 99.4% a victim imagine somebody who has a vendetta against you and makes an accusation, you are automatically guilty wow what a barbaric archaic system. Respect for Carlos to endure all the torture and staying strong through this ordeal. He has provided evidence of his innocence and Japan has no response because obviously they are 99.4% guilty of abusing the rights of an innocent man. Shame on the government of Japan for such injustices, they are the true criminals here!

[WYXYXYW]

As simple as:
"A good tree cannot give bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot give good fruit. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them!" 💗

[sudarshanmurthy]

Companies Netflix may be watching these acrions closely and make documentary out of it. It would be a hit 😉. this apart I have respect for him for his planning, courage, execution . No doubt he was at the helm of two large auto majors and transformed Auto industry in a way.

[pprocon]

Great thriller series. Can’t wait for the finale.

[前橋みき]

I wanted to share this excellent article from WSJ which reads so similar to the terrible things that happened to Mr Ghosn- our system is badly corrupted and very very few have the chance to fight but we must as we cannot believe our justice system!

Jailed Like Ghosn, a CEO Took On Japan’s Justice System

While Carlos Ghosn had to sneak out of Japan, Masamichi Sakai took on the country’s justice system —after pleading guilty just to get out of jail.

By Peter Landers

TOKYO—After 79 days in jail, it was pain from sitting too long that finally made Masamichi Sakai confess to a crime he says he didn’t commit. The 63-year-old owner of a construction company, under wardens’ orders, couldn’t stand or lie down in his cell. Pressure sores on his skin burned, he missed his family—which was barred from visiting him—and his own lawyer was telling him to admit everything. Mr. Sakai had held his ground during daily interrogations, he said, maintaining he wasn’t guilty of rigging bids on an $890, 000 city contract for a retaining wall. But when his trial finally started in September 2018, he pleaded guilty so he could go home, at least until the trial was over. The court scheduled a second session to formally declare his guilt. Japan’s prosecutors were set to add another win to their record of convicting more than 99% of defendants charged with crimes.
But Mr. Sakai’s wife, Shigeko Sakai, wouldn’t give up. Searching the internet on one of many sleepless nights, she had contacted another lawyer at 3 a.m., saying she was “clinging to the last straw" The new lawyer took the case, and Mr. Sakai switched his plea to not guilty—the first turnabout in a trial that would lead to an even bigger surprise.

Prosecutors said they continue to believe Mr. Sakai is guilty as charged, and declined to comment further on his case. Takeru Yamamoto, an official overseeing Japan’s national prison system, said that making prisoners sit is standard practice because time-pressed wardens need to see at a glance that detainees aren’t hiding anything. Mr. Yamamoto said he couldn’t comment on specific cases but jails wouldn’t force detainees who are in pain to sit.

The case of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn has spotlighted Japan’s justice system, which critics describe as a kind of “hostage justice” in which authorities lock up suspects for lengthy periods, interrogate them without lawyers present and urge them to confess in exchange for temporary freedom and a lighter sentence. Mr. Ghosn, who escaped Japan at the end of December, said he was punished for denying charges of financial crimes and fled injustice. Japanese officials say they respect human rights and independent judges give defendants a fair hearing. The system “does not force confessions, ” according to a Q&A posted by the Ministry of Justice in response to Mr. Ghosn’s allegations. Justice Minister Masako Mori has observed that Japan’s crime rate is extremely low compared with other countries, and political parties on both sides of the aisle have been reluctant to change a justice system many people believe helps keep the country safe.

Nonetheless, some Japanese lawyers said Mr. Ghosn put his finger on problems that affect Japanese defendants more often than foreigners.

“The interrogation style is to use any which way to extract a confession, ” said Kana Sasakura, a law professor at Konan University in Kobe. Interrogators “will attack people at their weakest point. They’ll use psychological tactics like saying, ‘Your children are crying’ ” to make suspects lose their will to resist, she said.
Since 1894, the Sakai family has run a small construction business in Ome, a city at the far western edge of the Tokyo metropolis. Mr. Sakai joined out of high school, and after taking over the business from his father, he said he was proud to be chosen as chairman of a local construction-industry group.

When the city put out the retaining wall project for bid in 2017, Mr. Sakai said, he and other contractors realized it would be a money loser because of a tricky grade on the site. But in his chairman’s role, Mr. Sakai said he also felt a responsibility because the wall was needed for a new road. He said he called around to some fellow contractors and confirmed none wanted the job. He put in a bid just below the maximum amount the city said it was willing to pay, won the project and had his workers build the wall. At 8 a.m. on a Sunday in May 2018, officers from the public-corruption unit of Tokyo’s police department knocked on his door. Mr. Sakai had to come downtown right away for a chat, he recalls them saying. He didn’t get home until 11 p.m. It was the start of interrogations that would take place several times a week, which were technically voluntary. Initially Mr. Sakai thought the police were after local politicians. Then, in July, they came to lock him up, accusing him of bid-rigging. The arrest impressed on the Sakais the power of authorities to create a media uproar. The amount at stake was minuscule in a metropolis with a nearly $70 billion budget. Among CEOs in Japan, Mr. Sakai was as obscure as Carlos Ghosn was famous. Yet the arrest was on national television all day, recalled Mrs. Sakai, as media discussed the possibility that the case was the tip of the iceberg. A national newspaper featured Mr. Sakai in its series, “The Core of Shocking Crimes, ” relaying the official line that Mr. Sakai wanted the wall contract and called in favors to get it.

Toshifumi Hienuki, an emeritus law professor at Hokkaido University, said authorities had reason to suspect price-fixing given that Mr. Sakai exchanged information about bidding plans with potential competitors. “Why did he have to make the calls at all? It’s suspicious, ” said Mr. Hienuki. “It’s logical to imagine there was some common understanding.”

Once he was behind bars, Mr. Sakai said, police interrogators and later prosecutors urged him to confess. The interrogators, he said, kept saying some variation of: “Admit it! If you admit it, you can get out quickly. Don’t you want to see your family?”
Mr. Sakai said he kept repeating his story. “For a long time, it was just that endless back-and-forth, ” he recalled. His wife and daughters couldn’t visit, because authorities said they were involved in the family business and might help him hide evidence—the same reason Mr. Ghosn’s wife and son were barred from seeing him. Mr. Sakai said he lost more than 50 pounds in jail.

Mr. Sakai said his initial lawyer wouldn’t ask the court to allow a visit by his son, who wasn’t in the family business, out of fear it might offend the judges. The lawyer’s advice, according to Mr. Sakai: “Just admit it all quickly, then you’ll be able to get out.” Once his guilty plea achieved that, his wife took him to see Nobuo Gohara, the new lawyer, who had been a prosecutor for 23 years before going into private practice. Mr. Sakai decided to fight again. He said he knew it was a long-shot, but: “I just couldn’t accept what happened.”

To prove his client’s innocence, Mr. Gohara had to undercut every point made by prosecutors. He called to the witness stand five of Mr. Sakai’s fellow contractors, who supported his story. One testified he had been badgered by prosecutors into signing a document backing up the official account, but in reality hadn’t heard Mr. Sakai express eagerness for the job. The defense did a study of retaining-wall contracts in Tokyo and found most didn’t get any bidders. Far from defrauding his hometown, Mr. Sakai had done it a favor by raising his hand, Mr. Gohara argued. During his interrogation by prosecutors, without a lawyer present, Mr. Sakai had signed a document saying he wanted the contract. Mr. Gohara went back to the tapes of the interrogation and found that Mr. Sakai had said he didn’t want the contract—though the paper he signed, in theory a summary of his testimony, contradicted his actual statements. Tokyo’s deputy chief prosecutor, Takahiro Saito, said the recording of interrogations, which has begun in recent years, was an important change to the justice system. “There are almost no cases any more where the issue of forced confessions becomes an issue at trial, ” he said. Mr. Saito declined to comment on Mr. Sakai’s case.

Most defendants in Japan don’t fight. Mr. Sakai was the exception—and his case had an exceptional outcome. In September, he overcame overwhelming odds and was found not guilty. As Mrs. Sakai recalls it, the chief judge, who had earlier flashed irritation at having to conduct a full trial, said a Japanese phrase signifying, “Sorry for the long trouble.” Mr. Sakai has handed the CEO’s job to one of his daughters, and the business is once again allowed to bid for city work. But the case isn’t over, because prosecutors have appealed.

“I tried to live a proper life, ” Mr. Sakai said. “Why do I have to experience this pain?”

[erakor]

The real way Carlos Ghosn escaped is he is actually an elf with supernatural powers

[felipevalles]

Freedom is not about where you can go but how much you can speak up to defend yourself in case that you needed, Carlos deserve a fair trial ✌🏻

[tchappyha]

Japanese people say he looks like Mr. Bean. Gohsn has gone like ghost.

[lllllMlllll]

If there was anyone who should be allowed to steal from Nissan, it is this guy!

[AnthonyJoh]

Vindictive is Japan's middle name.