The Great Escape
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Hi, Hagi. Hey. Okay, I have a question for you today.

Have you ever taken a bit too much on your plate at work? Like, you and I both freelance a lot, so have you ever taken on, like, too many jobs? Oh, definitely. And there have been so many times where it has come back to haunt me because I was unable to do certain things. Well, this week's story is all about a guy who burned the candle at both ends, and he ended up burning himself in the process. ♪

It's November 19th, 2018, and Maya Ghosn is pacing around her dad's apartment in Tokyo. She's 26 years old and has big brown eyes and curly hair. Tonight, she's a bundle of nerves because she's introducing her boyfriend to her dad. He's supposed to meet up with them before going to dinner at Jiro, a Michelin-starred sushi bar. It's a big night, but her dad's late, and he's never late.

Maya opens her family's WhatsApp chat, which they've named Game of Gones. Very clever. But there are no new messages since the one he sent before taking off from Beirut. And all it said was, on my way to Tokyo. Love you guys. And then her boyfriend sees the news on Twitter and it quickly spreads to news networks like CNN.

Welcome back. Breaking news. In the past few minutes, Nissan has revealed that its chairman has been arrested after allegations of serious misconduct. That guy they're talking about? That's Maya's dad, Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of French car company Renault. And he's the chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi, all at the same time. He's one of the most famous businessmen in the world. And he's just been arrested.

Then the doorbell rings. 17 Japanese men in suits flood into the apartment. They're from the prosecutor's office, and they have a warrant. Maya watches as they methodically comb through her father's things. His family photos, his personal letters. They even manage to open his safe. It takes the men six and a half hours to finish their sweep of the two-bedroom apartment. After they leave, Maya freaks out. She has no idea why her dad's been arrested, and neither does anyone else.

But soon, Maya and the rest of the world will discover that Carlos has been arrested for financial misconduct and fraud. And in a plot twist no one saw coming, this buttoned-up international businessman is going to plot one of the most unhinged escape stories I've ever heard. From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And this is Scamfluencers. Scamfluencers.

This story is unique for our show because it's about someone who has a legitimate job, or at least he does for a while, until he starts getting a little too creative with the bookkeeping. This story involves millions of dollars in hidden salaries, unironic parties at Versailles, and Shakespearean-level corporate backstabbing. This is The Great Escape. Legend.

Before Carlos Ghosn becomes a corporate titan, he's unemployed and fresh out of college. It's pretty relatable, except for the fact that he went to a prestigious French military university known for pumping out presidents, Nobel Prize winners, and a lot of successful CEOs.

But Carlos isn't unemployed for very long. In fact, he's quickly hired by Michelin to spearhead the company's expansion in Brazil. Since Carlos was born there, it seems like an obvious fit. And just like that, Carlos has his first job in the auto industry. This is the opportunity he's longed for since he was a kid. So, Sarah, here's some important backstory. In 1960, when he was six and living in Lebanon, his dad was arrested.

For murder. Oh, that's not a great origin story. Yeah, wildcard.

Long story short, his dad, Jorge, ran an illegal diamond smuggling business. And when he suspected that one of his associates was skimming off the top, Jorge confronted him, and the associate ended up dead. Later, he reportedly told investigators that it was an intimidation attempt gone wrong. He spent about 10 years in prison, and once he got out, he reportedly ran a counterfeiting money scheme and was arrested and jailed again.

You get out of prison for killing someone and then you just go right back in. Well, Carlos couldn't wait to escape his father's reputation. So as a teenager, he set his sights on leaving the country. He loved history and he was inspired by conquerors like Napoleon and Alexander the Great. You know, normal stuff.

And like those men, Carlos believed that he was capable of great things. He dreamt of going into business — legal, legitimate business — where he could make his mark, earn boatloads of money, and take care of his family in his dad's absence. And now, finally, he has that opportunity. Carlos does really well at Michelin, quickly rising through the ranks. By the time he's in his mid-30s, in the late 1980s, he's become the head of Michelin's North American operations.

About seven years later, he returns to France and takes on the number two job at Renault. And they dangle a pretty big carrot. If he does a good job, one day he'll get the top post, CEO. But right now, Renault is in debt, and Carlos makes it his mission to get them out of it. Which he does, within just a single calendar year.

But making that happen doesn't come easy. He has to close a plant and cut more than 3,000 jobs. Why do I feel like this will not go over well for his general reputation? Well, it doesn't. People in France don't like it. There are riots, and the French press even gives him the nickname Le Coste Killer. And Carlos hates the name, but it doesn't really matter.

Renault is so thrilled with his results that when they form an alliance with Nissan, they send Carlos to perform the same miracle in Japan. This whole alliance thing sounds extremely serious and also is something I've never heard about before in my life until now. I know that this kind of sounds like something out of Star Wars, but honestly, the alliance is just an agreement between the two companies to work together for their mutual benefit.

So Nissan gets bailed out of their massive debt by Renault, and in return, Renault gets access to Nissan's superior engineering and design departments, as well as their massive market in the U.S. At the same time, they both share manufacturing plants and supply chain resources. But the key point here, Sarah, is that this is not a merger. Both companies remain independent.

Still, over in Japan, plenty of Nissan executives worry about Renault's new role. They think Renault is about to make Nissan something it's not. To ease these concerns, Renault sends Carlos, a Brazilian-born, Lebanese-raised, French-educated capitalist with a history of cost-cutting and no idea about Japanese culture. Carlos has spent his life as an outsider, and he's always been able to win people over. But this might be his greatest challenge yet.

In October 1999, Carlos attends the 33rd annual Tokyo Motor Show as Nissan's new COO. And he's ready to share with the world his big Nissan revival plan. Sarah, here's a video of the event.

The theme to this year's 33rd Tokyo Motor Show is an eye to the future. And increasingly, that eye sees a blurred distinction between car, van, and SUV. I'm just kind of skimming through the video and like less than a minute in there's someone breakdancing in front of cars. And it's like, it's extremely new millennium. Very like...

early 2000s. It's such a time capsule. I feel like in 1999 slash 2000, it was like all about the future, you know? So they're trying really hard to make this look like the most futuristic thing possible, which is, it just looks silly now. Yeah, it all looks just laughable. But

But Carlos is really excited about his plan. And Renault certainly trusts him. But as for the throngs of Japanese reporters and Nissan employees who are actually in the room right now, they're skeptical. Foreigners hardly ever come in to run Japanese companies. But Nissan is $35 billion in debt. They're desperate to turn the company around.

Carlos steps up to the podium and launches into his speech. And if you thought his Renault plan was harsh, this is straight up ruthless. He says that if he doesn't return Nissan to profitability within three years, he and his entire executive team will resign.

And he's going to do it by cutting roughly $9 billion in costs. That means shutting down five manufacturing plants and firing a whopping 21,000 people. I love that he's like, first 21,000 people, and then maybe me and my friends will quit our jobs too.

Well, Sarah, the cuts are seen as so extreme that some Japanese media compare the proposal to Hiroshima. But Carlos does deliver on his promise, and he manages it a year ahead of schedule. By 2001, Nissan's not just in the black. They're thriving. And as a result, Carlos ends up taking over as Nissan's CEO. It's a dream come true.

And as he's restoring Nissan to its former glory, Carlos becomes a kind of CEO celebrity in Japan. Manga comics are written about him. There are bento boxes with sushi made to look like him. Japanese businessmen copy his pinstripe suits and rectangular glasses. There's even a term for all of it, gonmania.

Carlos' sister shares her recollections years later in the Netflix documentary, Fugitive, The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn. My cousin who was there told me once that she went to the restaurant with him. And when he entered the restaurant, she said, Naila, it was incredible. Everybody stood up and clapped their hands. And she told me, I had the shiver. I wish you were there to see him. Like, I would have cried, of course.

Okay, so it went from comparing his actions to Hiroshima to people like standing up and clapping for him when he enters a restaurant.

Well, yeah. I mean, that's like a pretty, I was like, they will never forgive him for axing 21,000 jobs. Oh, they will. They'll find a way. And they did. And now, Carlos is a bonafide business world celebrity. But all that praise just goes to his head. From up on his pedestal, it seems like he thinks he's a god, capable of just about anything. So when the chance to do the impossible comes along, Carlos snatches it.

In 2004, five years after he was first sent to Japan, Carlos is back in France. We don't quite know how all of this went down, but I like to picture him walking into Renault headquarters. It's a huge glass building in a little suburb of Paris. And Carlos makes his way to the executive suite, where the CEO, Louis Schweitzer, waits for him. Louis is Swiss-born, with perpetually pursed lips, and he's been Carlos' mentor for years.

But now it's time for him to retire and Carlos will take over as Renault's CEO. At least that's always been the plan. But Carlos kind of doesn't want the job anymore. He's already accomplished so much in Japan and he's adored by the masses. Time named him the most influential global business executive. He published an autobiography, whereas in France, he doesn't really feel the love.

So Carlos asks if Louis could just stay on a little bit longer. But Louis is ready to retire. So Carlos proposes another option. He can just run both companies at the same time. Louis is tired and he just wants to retire. So he agrees. Carlos is named CEO of both Renault and Nissan, making him the first man to run two Fortune 500 companies at the same time.

This is objectively insane. These are two completely separate international corporations based on opposite sides of the globe.

Yeah, it's really strange to me that he's the CEO of two car companies. Like, how is that not a conflict of interest? Yeah, listen, it sounds like it should be total nonsense, but here we are. And Carlos is now raking in not one, but two CEO salaries. And he's not in any kind of rush to find that replacement. Instead, he takes his money and upgrades his lifestyle. Again. Again.

He gets LASIK, he ditches the pinstripe suits for dark navy and black, and he wears shoes with thicker soles, like that old Tom Cruise trick to look taller. And it's all about to pay off when he meets someone who will change his life forever. About four years later, in November 2008, a Lebanese woman named Carol Nahas walks into the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel. She's 42 and wearing a black dress, with her blonde hair perfectly blown out.

She's here for a fundraiser for a Jesuit school in Beirut. And she's curious about the event's guest of honor, Carlos Ghosn. Leaders are not the smartest people. You select the people with whom you can connect. This is empathy. That's very important. Developing the capacity of empathy, recognizing empathy as a very important element of leadership, or even in a marriage, in a business, in political, is absolutely important.

And honestly, Sarah, it's pretty rich for Carlos to talk about empathy in business, let alone marriage. By this time, he's caused thousands of people to lose their jobs. And his own marriage is going through a pretty major rough patch. He and his wife fight so often, they barely even spend time on the same continent together anymore. But that leaves the door open for Carol, who introduces herself to Carlos after his speech. And she's like,

In a crazy coincidence, they both grew up in the same Beirut neighborhood 12 years apart, so they never crossed paths. But that shared upbringing resonates with Carlos. He and Carol end up exchanging emails...

And well, one thing leads to another, and soon they're involved. Oh, Carlos got game. Yeah, Lacoste killer finds l'amour. Oh, God. Carlos falls head over heels for Carol. And as their romance blooms, he starts imagining what retirement might look like and how much it's going to cost. The only problem is, at this point, the financial world is falling into crisis, and corporations are making drastic cuts.

And Japan, in particular, does not take kindly to millionaire executives. But Carlos knows his worth, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get it, even if it isn't exactly ethical or legal.

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In 2010, Carlos and his top executives gathered to discuss a pressing optics problem. And it's all about Carlos. We don't know where this meeting happened, but I like to picture it at Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, just outside of Tokyo. It's a massive corporate skyscraper, and its entire first floor is a futuristic showroom of Nissan cars.

The Japanese government just passed a law requiring any executive making more than 100 million yen a year to disclose their salary. Now, that's roughly a million U.S. dollars. Sarah, if you had to guess, how much do you think Carlos is making these days? I mean, it's probably in the millions. Five to ten, I'd say. It is 17 million dollars. Oh, awesome. Yeah, and that's just for Nissan, right? Yeah.

And if that number gets out into the world, it'll cause outrage. By comparison, the CEO of Toyota won't even have to reveal his salary because he makes under a million dollars. So the CEO of an even bigger car company is somehow making millions and millions of dollars less than he is a year. I just don't see how that's even possible. Well, it's very possible. And Carlos can cut his salary to save his job, but honestly, he's frustrated.

He revived Nissan and stayed at the company when he could have just bounced back to France full time. And just the year before, he turned down the Obama administration's offer to run General Motors in the U.S., where the CEO makes nearly $22 million. But Carlos is loyal. He loves Nissan and he wants to stay. He's built a life here with his four kids and now with Carol.

So during the meeting, he gives in and he says he'll cut his salary almost in half, down to $9.6 million. That's disgusting. He's poor now. I know. He is practically destitute. And look, yeah, you're right. It's still a lot of money, but it's not like public outrage money. Or at least that's what he hopes. But there's a catch.

Carlos later asks one of his top executives to help him figure out a different solution. His name is Greg Kelly, and he's an American businessman from Tennessee. He has a can-do attitude and unending loyalty. So Carlos tasks Greg to find a way to get him his full salary, but without disclosing it. And Greg comes up with a kind of IOU plan.

He decides to split Carlos' salary into two pots, the $9.6 million a year that he's going to get now, plus a much bigger sum that they're going to call a consulting fee. And Sarah, this consulting fee will come out to roughly $150 million over 10 years after Carlos retires.

Greg also plans to funnel money through subsidiaries to buy Carlos properties in Paris, Brazil, and Lebanon. And none of that will be disclosed as part of Carlos' salary. In the meantime, Carlos gets to enjoy the perks of being a CEO of a major company. He allegedly goes to the World Cup on Nissan's dime. And he has the company pay for all four of his kids to go to Stanford.

I mean, this is just absolutely crazy. It's such a weird scam. It's like you're already getting so much money. It is a wild amount of greed. And the other thing is that some of the Nissan executives know what's going on, but none of them say anything. As long as Carlos remains loyal to Nissan, they're happy to look the other way. Especially while he's protecting them from any potential takeover from their partner Renault.

But if the Nissan executives hear even a whiff of merger talks, they've now got a trump card. And they will not be afraid to use it. In 2016, Carlos and Carol get married. She's the blonde he met at the fundraiser for a Lebanese school eight years earlier. Carlos has been divorced from his first wife for four years now, and he's ready to give marriage another go. He's so in love that this time he's going all out.

So they throw their wedding reception at Versailles. Yep, that Versailles. And the whole thing is Marie Antoinette themed. Because you know who would love a hat on a hat? Marie fucking Antoinette.

There are even actors dressed in 18th century costumes and a four-foot-tall, brightly colored cake. Wow, this is very Bridgerton core. Yeah, Sarah, you're right. They're very ahead of the curve. And meanwhile, outlets like the New York Post report that the whole thing costs around $700,000. And it's not just the movie.

And as you can imagine, the exorbitant spending does not go over well in Japan or in France. But Carlos is either oblivious or he just doesn't care. He and Carol are living it up,

They buy a winery in Lebanon, beautiful apartments in Beirut, Rio and Tokyo. And they also get a 121-foot yacht. And when Rio hosts the Olympics, Carlos runs with the torch. It probably doesn't hurt that he got Nissan to sponsor the event, reportedly for more than $200 million. I mean, that is really funny stuff.

sponsoring that much money to the Olympics just so you can run with the torch for a little bit? No one remembers or cares. I wouldn't pay anybody to run anywhere, so none of it really makes a lot of sense to me, but, you know, whatever. A couple months later, Carlos brings yet another company into the alliance, Mitsubishi. And then, Sarah, he takes over as their chairman as well. He just wants to own all the cars. He just wants all the cars to himself. No one else gets a car.

And not long after, he becomes chairman of Nissan. And when it comes time to re-up as Renault's CEO in February of 2018, he negotiates for four more years. Renault agrees, but on one condition. Carlos must finally merge Renault and Nissan. Renault has grown increasingly concerned that Nissan wants to pull away and go off on its own, leaving them far behind.

So for them, a merger is paramount. But Carlos knows that Nissan is afraid of this very thing. They want to remain separate entities. So Carlos has his work cut out for him. Tensions are running high between the two companies, but he's got his own future to think about. And so he agrees to Renault's terms. And it's a decision that's about to cause unimaginable chaos. ♪

A month later, in March 2018, a group of lawyers and executives have a secret meeting in an office on the 21st floor of Nissan headquarters. One of them is Hari Nada. He's a meticulous man with salt-and-pepper hair who also has a penchant for chain-smoking, expensive suits, and wild vacations. Me, too. Hari swears the other men to secrecy. He says that what they're about to discuss could be considered treason.

You know, if someone started a conversation with me and they were like, it could be considered treason, I think I would just kind of respectfully back out, you know? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a fair response. But bear with me, because Hari knows that it's time to get Carlos out of Nissan. And he knows it needs to happen now, before Carlos retires and collects his $150 million consultant salary.

Hari knows all about that. And he also knows that Carlos has been funneling money into subsidiaries to buy properties. Hari even helped purchase some of them.

Okay, so he doesn't have a choice but to be a part of this treason conversation, I'm understanding. He's leading the treason in a lot of ways. It wasn't treason optional. It was, no, no, no, no. We're doing this treason. We're already in it. We're just going to talk about it now. Yeah. Well, the group acknowledges the integral role that Carlos has played at Nissan. So they brainstorm what steps they can take if Carlos suddenly left. It's important that they take their time and consider all of their options.

But then, a little over two months later, an auditor grows tired of waiting and makes an executive decision. He goes to the Japanese authorities and he spills everything. When Hari learns about this, he panics. He knows he needs protection. So he also goes to the prosecutors and agrees to turn informant in exchange for immunity. He hands over everything he knows and even continues to spy for them.

When Greg Kelly, Carlos' top aide, calls him with updates about Carlos' retirement salary, Hari writes up summaries of those conversations as well. Hari feels bad about turning on Carlos, but he has to watch his back. And he convinces himself that this is the right thing to do. He's saving Nissan. If anyone would understand the cost of doing business, it's Carlos. About eight months later, on November 19, 2018, Carlos flies from Beirut to Tokyo on his private jet.

But when he lands and heads through customs, the immigration officer tells him that something is wrong with his passport. And then things start moving fast. He's brought to another room where a prosecutor whisks him away to a holding cell. Carlos demands an explanation. And the prosecutor only gives vague comments about compensation.

Carlos doesn't have time for this. He insists someone call Nissan so that they can send a lawyer. Carlos knows, at the very least, he's going to be late to dinner with his daughter and her boyfriend tonight. How is he going to explain this? Okay, so this is the scene when his daughter's all nervous because her boyfriend's meeting her dad for the first time, right? Yeah, exactly. And then a French ambassador visits Carlos and tells him the hard truth.

Nissan isn't going to help. And actually, they were the ones who went to the prosecutor's office in the first place. Wow. The thing about the table, Sachi, they turn. They're notorious for turning. Well, Carlos thinks that he's being set up. This is a corporate coup designed to get him out of the picture so Nissan can break away from Renault. But the Japanese prosecutors don't buy it. They want him to confess to financial misconduct.

He sits through hours of interrogations every day. And when he's not being interrogated, he reads books like Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart. I kind of think the title really says it all, you know? And he only gets to go outside for 30 minutes a day and only on weekdays. And just to add a little salt to the wound, while he's held in jail, he gets fired from Nissan and Mitsubishi. And then months later, he resigns from Renault.

I mean, I don't know, wouldn't you? But worst of all, he can't see any of his family. The only people allowed to visit are his lawyers and embassy representatives. This went very bad very fast. Yes, it did. Prosecutors hold him for 21 days before handing down their official charges. Failure to disclose his true income and misusing corporate funds. But they don't actually release Carlos on bail.

He's stuck in jail indefinitely until his trial. Carlos knows that a trial is not going to end well for him. The Japanese government has a conviction rate of over 99%. But he's Carlos Ghosn. He's just not going to accept that. He needs to find a way out. If he doesn't, forget about the money or his job, he may wind up just like his father, in prison for a very long time.

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For the next four months, Carlos' defense team works around the clock to get him out of prison. And finally, after 108 days stuck in a cell, a judge agrees to set bail at roughly $9 million. When Carlos gets out, he's a shell of the man he once was. He's lost at least 20 pounds, and he has dark bags under his eyes. He looks utterly defeated. All he wants right now is to be reunited with his family.

A ton of reporters were posted outside the prison when he's about to be released. And to avoid them, Carlos' lawyer suggests that Carlos wear a disguise. So he walks out with a group of wardens dressed as a prison employee. Sarah, take a look at this photo. This is, again, one of those situations where I'm kind of like, is this allowed? Um...

It's a bunch of, you know, prison employees, and they're all wearing masks and uniforms. And you see him there, and it's very obvious which one he is because his uniform isn't the exact same as everyone else's. I mean, obviously, the press is not fooled. They spot him as he hops into a waiting van, and they chase after him. They're on motorcycles and cars, and helicopters even follow him from above. Carlos's driver circles the city trying to lose them, but the whole thing takes hours.

Finally, he makes it back to his new Tokyo apartment, which is a very different space than he's used to. And he's had to move out of the posh apartment Nissan paid for. But it was hard to find a landlord willing to rent to him after everything that's gone down. So now home is a bare 500 square foot one bedroom apartment outside Shibuya.

And if that weren't enough, his every move is watched by cameras. And he can't even use his phone or internet outside of his lawyer's office. Everyone tells him to lay low and let his defense team do their job. But that is not Carlos' style. He feels unfairly persecuted, and he desperately wants to get his side of the story out. So when he hears that prosecutors are preparing to indict him again, he decides to take a chance. At this point, what does he have to lose?

So a month after posting bail, on April 3rd, he joins Twitter and sends a tweet that reads, quote, I'm getting ready to tell the truth about what's happening. Press conference on Thursday, April 11th. Oh, buddy, I don't think this will turn out the way he thinks it's going to turn out. Yeah. Well, Sarah, the very next morning, Japanese authorities show up on his doorstep and they arrest him again.

They say it's for the new charge of defrauding Nissan, but obviously it's very convenient timing. They end up holding Carlos for another three weeks, until finally his lawyer manages to get him out on bail once again. But there's a catch. When he goes back to his apartment, his comings and goings are still being tracked. But this time, he's not allowed to see or speak to his wife, Carol, who is now considered a potential witness. ♪

That is the last straw for Carlos. He already thought this case was a scam, but now he's alone and he's worried he's never going to see his family again. He's looking at 15 years in prison and potentially another five years of this limbo before they'd even reach a verdict.

Sarah, can you read what Carlos later said about this time? He said, I mean, I think you brought yourself down to earth, man. Yeah. Well, living without Carol is simply not an option for Carlos. Fed up and desperate, he knows he needs to get out of this situation.

So he starts to plan his great escape. On December 29th, 2019, just over a year since Carlos's initial arrest, he walks into the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown Tokyo. He's wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a scarf to hide his face. He makes his way to the elevators, nervously keeping his head down to avoid the cameras. It's not until he makes it to room 933 that he finally relaxes.

There, Carlos meets a man named Michael Taylor. Michael has buzzed hair and a square jaw.

He's a former Green Beret with close ties to Lebanon. And he's super intense. He's even got experience with hostage releases. And he brings along his 26-year-old son, Peter, mainly to help scout things out. And then there's George Zayek, a former Lebanese militia member with the scars to prove it. It's unclear how exactly Carlos initially got in touch with Michael, and the details about who else is involved are a little murky.

But what we do know is that a few months earlier, Carlos wired $860,000 to a company associated with Michael. And now this ragtag gang is here to get Carlos out of Japan.

They've got seven hours until the private jet they've booked takes off from Osaka. It's headed to Carlos' home country of Lebanon, which conveniently does not extradite its citizens. You gotta hand it to Carlos. The ultimate will-not-take-no-for-an-answer scammer. Yeah, I mean, he's really scrappy. So Carlos and his accomplices hop on a train to Osaka. It's two hours away, and the ride is intense.

Carlos has been famous in Japan for decades, so he knows there's a risk that someone might recognize him. And if that happens, the whole plan will fall apart. When they reach Osaka, the group makes their way to another hotel, where they show Carlos a black rectangular trunk. It's the kind that, like, musicians carry their gear in.

And they tell Carlos, "Alright, you gotta get in it." I mean, obviously it's a tight fit, and they can't put anything more than a sheet over him. So if anybody opens the box to check its contents, they're screwed. But what choice does Carlos have? If he doesn't escape now, he could be held hostage in Japan's legal system for another two decades.

So Carlos gets in the box and he curls up in the fetal position. Even though there's air holes on the bottom, he'll be stuck in that box for at least an hour and a half. He can feel the claustrophobia settling in. Michael, Peter, and George haul the trunk to the private plane and lift it into the cargo hold. Carlos waits. 30 minutes left till takeoff. He swears it's the longest half hour of his life. He's sure that someone is going to uncover him at any moment.

But then, at around 11 p.m., the plane takes off. Carlos nearly cries. He's leaving Japan. He's free.

When Carlos finally lands in Lebanon, he goes straight to his wife, Carol. Finally, the two are reunited. And even though he's technically an international fugitive now, they're betting that as long as he stays in his home country, he will be safe. A few days later, on January 8th, 2020, Carlos holds a press conference. He stands behind a podium and gives his side of the story for two and a half hours. And this man has got the receipts.

He flicks through a PowerPoint presentation of documents arguing that this entire thing was a corporate takeover. Here he is calling out the Nissan executives. I have come to learn that my unimaginable ordeal over the past 14 months is the result of a handful of unscrupulous, vindictive individuals at Nissan.

Carlos has a lot of gripes, and most of them are with Nissan executives.

Carlos says that they not only knew about the properties that Nissan bought him over the years, they signed the papers authorizing them. I mean, that is kind of true. Like, weren't people looking the other way knowing he was getting paid that much money? And then I guess it kind of came to light and everyone was like, well, we didn't know, but they did know. Yeah. Not that he's not guilty, but like everyone else knows.

knew about this. Yeah, exactly. And he also says that he never saw a penny of the $150 million he was supposed to make once he retired. But while Carlos gets a chance to defend himself, the others who helped him are not so lucky. His top aide, Greg Kelly, spends three long years stuck in Japan on bail, preparing for trial.

He's finally convicted of financial misconduct in 2022. But the judge takes mercy on him and allows him to return to the States to serve out his time on probation. Michael Taylor, the Green Beret, and his son, Peter, get much harsher treatment. Both are eventually caught and extradited from the U.S. to face charges for aiding the escape. Michael was sentenced to two years in prison, while Peter got a year and eight months.

Both were released in November 2022 after serving 20 months, most of it in solitary confinement. Michael says he's received $1.3 million from Carlos for helping him escape. But now he's hoping to get $3 million more to cover his legal fees. Mamma mia, there's a lot going on here. I mean, everyone's so disappointing and...

Carlos really tried, you know? I'll give him that. Yeah, I think he tried so hard to not follow the rules. Yes. I think he can safely say that there's nothing he could have done to avoid this. Yeah, this was an unavoidable crime for sure. Because he needed all that money, you know? He needed it. Absolutely. Well, as for the alliance itself, it's still going strong. Although all talks of a merger have seemingly subsided. But...

But both Nissan and Renault can agree on one thing. Carlos left them with a hell of a mess to sort through. These days, Carlos spends most of his time fighting to clear his name from the safety of his home in Beirut. He's got lawyers on three separate continents. He hired a big-time PR firm. And he's talking to multiple Hollywood production studios about making a movie based on his life.

To this day, Carlos claims that the money Nissan says he misused was all above board and that the salary he failed to disclose was never actually paid. This is all just one big corporate coup, and he is merely a pawn who got played.

All right, Sarah, thank you for coming on this car journey with me. Yeah, I mean, Carlos is pretty wild. Do you think that it was all his fault? Because I feel like when I think about the story, it really reads to me like all these companies were totally fine with whatever was happening and they were either looking the other way or they were clearing these checks. They were okay with it until it became publicly ugly and then they had to do something. Him saying that

Yeah. I mean, he wanted an amount of money that is just unnecessary. Like, at a certain point, there's, what are you getting? Yeah.

Like, if you're already making, like, $20 million and you're like, but I need $150, you know? Like, you're already rich as shit. Yeah, I think he definitely liked the power. He definitely liked the fame. I mean, like, how many CEOs of car companies can any person name? Yeah.

Like, that's just unheard of that a CEO of a car company is someone anyone cares about or knows by name. Well, I guess people will care if he's firing, like, tens of thousands of people en masse. I would care. But then he did become very beloved in Japan. Yeah, well, he fixed the company. He was right, I guess. Yeah, I'm sure if you fire thousands of people, your company will save money just based on not having to pay people anymore. But...

I guess he saw his life becoming something bigger than it was than just like an average CEO kind of guy. What do you think was his failure? Like this probably could have kept going on. Do you think he should have just been like, OK, you know what? I'm just going to take the like 10 million a year. I'll cut my salary in half. You know, you don't have to send my kids to Stanford or whatever, but just give me like a payout when I retire. Don't you think he would have gotten away with it then? Yeah.

Yeah, and I mean, he was so rich. He could have retired at any time. He just, like, wanted to be in power for so long. Like, he just got too obsessed with this idea of having so much power. Like, he became the first person to be the CEO of two Fortune 500 companies. He really got...

conned into, you know, hustle culture in that sense, eh? He was girlbossing too hard and he... He girlbossed too close to the sun. He girlbossed too close to the sun. That's what happened here. That's the moral of the story. The moral of the story is, um, don't work so hard.

Take it easy. No, you could just be the CEO of one Fortune 500 company and I'm sure you're going to be fine. You don't need to have two jobs that pay you millions and millions of dollars. Just take the one job. Yeah, I agree. That's what I've been doing.

This is The Great Escape. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scamfluencersatwondery.com. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Boundless, The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn by Nick Kostob and Sean McClain, and a New York Times profile by Amy Chozik and Motoko Rich, and Reed Stevenson's reporting for Bloomberg.

Sound design is by Sam Ada. Fact-checking by Gabrielle Drolet. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrienne Tapia.

Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freeze on Sync. Our senior managing producer is Tanja Thigpen. Our managing producer is Matt Gant. Kate Young and Olivia Richard are our series producers. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our senior producer is Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, Jenny Lauer Beckman, and Marsha Louis for Wondery.

If you like Scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.