Billionaire CEO fled Japan inside 3ft box to dodge gruelling life sentence
One of the most ridiculous stories to come out in recent years involves a billionaire CEO's escape from justice, as he fled Japan after being arrested in a 3 foot box in a whirlwind turn of events.
Most miraculous escapes involve some ridiculous legal loopholes that the best lawyers money can buy take advantage of or dangerous prison breaks that often don't go exactly to plan.
However, one of the most famous evasions of justice occurred just a few years ago as former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn – who saved the company from imminent bankruptcy – fled Japan in a tiny box after being faced with serious legal allegations regarding his finances.
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The reasoning behind Ghosn's arrest is almost as wild as his eventual escape though, as years of potential misuse of company funds might not have been what it seemed going by other verdicts.
Why was Carlos Ghosn arrested?
As revealed by Japanalysis on YouTube in an illuminating video regarding the events that led up to Ghosn's escape, the Brazilian billionaire was brought on board at Nissan due to his reputation as a cost-cutting master, as the company was in significant debt that was only getting worse as time went on.
While it was seen as controversial initially, Ghosn's cash saving measures – which included mass stock sales, factory closures, and redundancies – saw the company recover, and he even became an incredibly popular figure in Japan and the highest paid person across the country.
Following the 2008 financial crash though Japanese law made it so that any individuals earning over $1 million were required to disclose their salary, forcing Ghosn to half his $20 million wage out of fear of embarassment.
This was in part the catalyst that led to his downfall though, as in that agreement it was decided that the money he was removing from his wages would then be deferred to his retirement, and that led to him being arrested for underreporting post-retirement remuneration.
As a result, he was held in solitary confinement for an intial period of 20 days, and then handed several further sentances involving mishandling Nissan company funds after it was alleged that he used a special process called Carlos' 'CEO Reserve' to pay off several million dollar debts and fund extremely expensive yacht purchases.
He eventually was allowed to leave on bail after four months of solitary confinement, and that's when he started to explore the possibility of escape with the threat of life imprisonment at his doorstep.
How did he escape Japan?
As reported by the BBC, a plan began to emerge that would allow Carlos Ghosn to escape from Japan without anyone knowing by hiding himself in a 3ft custom-made box under the guise of transporting musical instruments.
"The plan was I could not show my face so I have to be hidden somewhere," he explained, "and the only way I could be hidden [was] to be in a box or be in a luggage so nobody could see me, nobody could recognise me and the plan could work."
Using musical instruments in this case "was the most logical one, particularly that around this time there were a lot of concerts in Japan," and he enlisted the help of former US Army Special Forces soldier Michael Taylor to carry out the operation.
In order to get out of his house he ditched his typical suits in favor of jeans and trainers, and this allowed him to reach the hotel where Taylor was staying and the box was waiting.
"When you get in the box, you don't think about the past, you don't think about the future, you just think about the moment," Carlos Ghosn illustrated when discussing his thought process at the time.
"You're not afraid, you don't have any emotion except the huge concentration on 'this is your chance, you can't miss it. If you miss it, you're going to pay with your life, with the life of a hostage in Japan'."
He managed to pass through security as the Taylor and his son argued that the case was too valuable to go through the x-ray scanner, and his private jet miraculously took off and landed without issues in Lebanon — a country without a extradition treaty with Japan.
Ghosn conducted a press conference as soon as he landed, revealing his crazy escape and argued that he did not escape justice, but instead fled injustice as he believes that he was innocent.