Former Renault chief executive and Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn's secret escape from Japan on December 29th, when he was allegedly smuggled out of the country in a musical instrument box by hired former special services veterans, was as dramatic as his arrest there one year earlier on charges of serious financial misconduct. But the manner of his flight bore all the hallmarks of the use over two decades by the one-time titan of the world’s carmaking industry of private security personnel, both to spy on his staff but also shareholders and board members. Mediapart's Matthieu Suc, author of a recent book detailing Ghosn’s seeming obsession with surveillance, reports.
At 10.10am local time on December 29th 2019, two men descended from a Bombardier Global Express private jet on the tarmac of Kansai airport close to the Japanese city of Osaka. The two Americans, who had rented the business jet explaining they were heading for a concert in Japan, had left Dubai the previous evening carrying two cases designed to carry musical equipment which had been specially modified with the addition of wheels and, more discretely, small drilled holes.
