Nissan’s Fugitive CEO: What Really Happened?

By now, there’s a good chance you’ve heard some version of the story: Nissan’s CEO, facing a prison sentence in Japan, hires some smooth operators to sneak him out of the country in a music box. It’s not the kind of circumstance we’re used to watching billionaires find themselves in. So who is Carlos Ghosn? How did he climb to the top of the automotive industry and what caused him to fall so hard? And what’s going on with him now? This is everything you need to know to get up to speed on…Carlos Ghosn!



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Donut Media is at the center of digital media for the next generation of automotive and motorsports enthusiasts. We are drivers, drifters, and car enthusiasts who love to tell stories.

[Rao_Sahab_]

Hey guys, You should make a video talking about yourselves and how Donut was started about the founder of Donut Media and many more things about your organization.

[-SP.]

It's funny because some Japanese Nissan officials were also caught stealing funds just like Ghosn, however, they got no jail time and only had to apologize. In the video, you guys didn't mention the takeover attempt by Hari Nada. There is also the fact that Nissan's top lawyer, Ravinder Passi was fired and had his Tokyo house raided by the police after he reported to the Nissan board about some suspicious activity regarding Ghosn's case.

[HenryMidfields]

As a Japanese, there are a couple more aspects I'd add.

In Japan, restructuring is considered more an open secret (as in "The less we talk about it, the better"), instead of just another unlucky event you have no control over and that you'll probably face as something you'd just have to accept like in most of Euro-Aust-America. Dismissal is notoriously difficult thanks to both cultural tradition (firing people is considered disgraceful and ruinous to people's faces (as in their honour/pride)) and the legal precedent deriving from the cultural basis. What is more often done is to progressively make people's work more menial/humiliating, or less lucrative to give the informal signal that they want to let you go - though a couple of recent lawsuits made this constitute as workplace harrassment.

The restructuring Ghosn did itself isn't all that unusual, I think, when other Japanese companies also have been restructuring as well since the 90s. If anything, I reckon the other corporations are more insidious as they kept the wages low, and were complicit with the powerless/useless labour unions to keep it that way.

Agreed with the lack of legal representation in the Japanese justice system. We had cases of justice miscarriages because of this, and one case even involved the prosecution agency tampering with evidence. Google "Atsuko Kimura" (the former bureaucrat for the Ministry of Labor and Health) for one example.

Sure, Ghosn might have been acting inappropriately in a few cases, but for one, there aren't many details or exact extent of misappropriation disclosed. And some that are disclosed, like family vacations or rent payments for homes are more like stipends for expats working overseas like my dad was previously paid with. Also, other Japanese corporations (I can think of at least Olympus back around 2010) also did shady accounting and worse hid massive losses from the public, and many of those executives got away with it, so I think there is selective corporate politics involved. There's also the questions of how complicit everyone else at Nissan was, and they also darn well should at least face some scruitny.

[ouagadougou]

You forgot to mention that Saikawa had to quit the company for the same reason that Ghosn was arrested for. Also, Saikawa signed off on all compensation packages for Ghosn. And what happened to Saikawa, he apologized and all was honky dory with the police and Nissan. I have never been a fan of Ghosn but he was definitely railroaded here.

[mlb]

The resume says "failed comedian" but James literally makes me laugh multiple times in every video he's involved with. You rock dude

[pdrsolo]

Nothing better than starting a day with a fresh Donut Media video. I've done extensive researches on Carlos' history, thanks for the vid...

[gatling]

The Ghosn case is fascinating, because there are layers upon layers here.

It's probable that Ghosn was crooked. It's not uncommon for CEOs and other high level executives to have some shady dealings, and it's also not uncommon for everyone to look the other way until said CEO or high level executive becomes inconvenient. At the same time, the video only just scratches the surface of how wild the Japanese justice system is. That 99.4% conviction rate is the product of what critics call "hostage justice." If the police think you committed a crime, they'll just interrogate you until you confess. That 23 days is already absurdly long compared to much of the rest of the world, and they can find ways to keep resetting the clock for months on end. In the end, whether or not Ghosn was as crooked as he was made out to be, escaping in a box was probably the best possible outcome he could have hoped for.

[bolt]

Even if the charges against Carlos Ghosn are true I do not blame him for fleeing Japan, because it's justice system is so messed up.

Carlos Ghosn was held for weeks on end, in solitary confinement, and without access to a lawyer. Which is considered a violation of human rights.

[rottenrobbie]

The fact that we get free documentaries on YouTube by Donut Media is truly a gift 👍👍👍

[AmalgamationofMan]

This is one of the greatest stories in automotive history.

[artistwithouttalent]

9:43 Important point regarding the Xtronic CVT: they weren't just bad, _they were defective._ Nissan settled a multi-billion dollar class-action lawsuit regardless those transmissions, and the terms _still_ didn't cover everyone affected.

Signed someone who lost her shirt on a 2015 Sentra.

[andreyv]

A of important parts were cut out.
Probably most important one - how Carlos established an alliance with Renault. And Japanese government (which has a control over major Japanese businesses) was against that alliance but still allowed it with some conditions to make sure that Nissan will stay Japanese. And Carlos was slowly making different schemes under the table that compromised those conditions. And some of those schemes were really big.

There were also other factors in this story.
But basically he angered Japanese part of Nisan's higher-ups and Japanese government. This was probably the most important part of the story - everything else was mostly used to have him sit in jail.

And also there is an afterstory about green berets that evacuated him - their homeland gave them up to Japanese government and they sat in Japanese jail for some time.

Carlos IS an excellent manager - like on a genius level. But basically, this is a story about a bunch of evil politicians and businessman (including him)

[AmirZaimMohdZaini]

Speaking of nissan, there's another story of one guy named Nissan actually fighting against the Japanese carmaker because of website domain dispute. I hope you can tell the bizzare story about the guy named Nissan vs The Japanese Carmaker...

[samislegend]

Ya'll consistently making some of Youtube's best content, day in, day out, editing world class, whole team strong. I love all of you for different reasons.

[kevinscott]

I just hope someday the history books will acknowledge Donut Media for their brilliant intersection of journalism and presentation.

So much information, and perfectly interesting to watch.

[kpitts]

I was a Nissan guy till the 2000’s after I had 2 cars blow up 3 years apart, I switched to Toyota. 4Runner with 200k miles later and I’m happy. Quality over cost.

[ikmtowin]

Oh yes, who'd imagine that a Brazilian-Leabanese foreigner, in one of the most conservative countries in the world, that fired thousands of nationals while making a complete management look plain stupid would have to deal with a rather grey legal prosecution and possible corporate-government collude

[ssxlbc]

It's crazy to see them upload at 5am PST.. I can start my early morning with some good ol Donut

[neilkhan]

Can you please mention that he had a huge hand in developing the legendary GTR. Please don't forget he made the most iconic car ever

[oscardiggs]

As someone who owned a Nissan with a CVT, i hope he gets sentenced to drive cars that just stop driving forward at random intervals for the rest of his life.