According to new investigations, former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn used bitcoin to escape Japanese authorities in a Hollywood-worthy plan.
Carlos Ghosn was a high-ranking executive at Nissan who was accused of tax fraud and tax evasion in Japan. Of Lebanese origin, Ghosn was born in Brazil and lived in Tupiniquin lands until he was 6, when he went to France and gained citizenship in the country. But its story really started to draw attention after Nissan's merger with Renault and Mitsubishi.
With Carlos in charge, the consortium of companies became the world's largest car producer, surpassing Ford, GM and major manufacturers. He is also a hated figure in Japan, as he laid off more than 30,000 employees while he was in charge.
In 2019, the executive was charged with tax evasion and fraud against Nissan, and was placed under house arrest until the trial that would take place at the end of the same or early 2020. However, in a cinematic plan, Carlos fled to Lebanon.
Carlos' unbelievable escape with Bitcoin
Recent investigations by Bloomberg showed that Carlos had the help of his son, Anthony Ghosn, and two accomplices to flee the country. Peter Taylor and his son Michael Taylor helped to escape by smuggling Carlos inside a box of musical instruments from Tokyo to Kansai International Airport in Osaka.
Despite denying the family's assistance, investigators found recordings showing that Carlos met his daughter Maya Ghosn and Anthony on the same day of the escape.
From the airport, Carlos took a private jet bound for Istanbul in Turkey and only then did he take a second plane to Lebanon, a place that has no extradition agreement to Japan.
For the service done on December 29, Ghosn paid the Taylors a total of $ 1.36 million in installments from January through May. $ 500,000 was sent in bitcoin through Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency broker in the United States. In the extradition request, Japanese investigators said that Ghosn himself had transferred more than $ 860,000 to a company managed by Peter Taylor.
Carlos x Japanese state justice
Ghosn denies any crime and said in a statement that he did not escape justice but "from injustice and political persecution".
Carlos' defense accuses the Japanese judicial system of being unfair, because unlike what happens in the West, the Prosecutor's Office uses strong pressure to obtain a confession. And the accused has no right to remain silent.
As a result, Japan has many cases of unfair arrests. As was the case with parliamentarian Tomohiro Ishikawa, arrested in 2010 on charges of receiving bribes, he was interrogated for 12 hours a day for a period of 3 weeks until he confessed to a minor crime, which he says he did not commit.
