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TOKYO -- Two Americans charged with helping former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan while he was facing accusations of financial misconduct agreed Monday that they took part in a scheme for him to escape the country. Statements by Michael Taylor and his son, Peter, on the opening day of their trial in Tokyo suggest the pair don’t plan to fight charges of assisting a criminal. That carries a possible penalty of up to three years in prison.

U.S. authorities arrested a former Green Beret and his son on suspicion they helped smuggle auto titan Carlos Ghosn out of Japan inside a musical equipment box. In a criminal complaint, federal prosecutors said they were acting on a request from Japanese authorities to extradite Michael L. Taylor and his son, Peter M. Taylor, for their alleged roles in helping Mr. Ghosn escape from Japan. Michael and Peter Taylor didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Mr. Ghosn, a former Chairman and Chief Executive of Nissan Motor Co., had been charged in Japan with financial crimes and was living in...

Carlos Ghosn’s escape to Lebanon from Japan followed weeks of planning by associates aimed at getting the former auto executive to a country they believed would provide a more friendly legal environment to try the claims of financial wrongdoing against him, according to people familiar with the matter. Last weekend, a team assembled to carry out his exfiltration sprung the plan into action with the aid of accomplices in Japan, one of these people said. Mr. Ghosn was spirited from his court-monitored residence in Tokyo onto a private jet, bound for Turkey. Mr. Ghosn then continued by plane to Lebanon,...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/30/ousted-renault-nissan-boss-carlos-ghosn-violates-house-arrest-in-tokyo-lands-in-lebanon-reports-say.html Reuters Link only

TOKYO — A lawyer for Nissan former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was taken back into custody last week, has outlined the conditions for his initial release on bail in an effort to clarify what he called incorrect speculation in the Japanese media. Ghosn, accused of financial misconduct, was arrested in November, but released in March. He was detained again on fresh allegations Thursday. It is unusual in Japan for a suspect who cleared bail to be arrested again.

The Nissan chairman, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested on Monday after an internal company investigation found that he had underreported his compensation to the Japanese financial authorities for several years. Nissan said it was cooperating with Japanese prosecutors. It also said that it had opened its inquiry after a whistle-blower alleged that Mr. Ghosn had been misrepresenting his salary as well as using company assets for personal use. Both he and a director, Greg Kelly, who was also accused of misconduct, were taken in by authorities, the company said. It is a remarkable tumble for Mr. Ghosn, who arrived at Nissan...

TOKYO -- Nissan is having a "performance crisis." That's what the Japanese automaker's president, Carlos Ghosn, said on Friday after Nissan slashed its annual forecast and reported a 22 percent slump in earnings from October through December. "We have today a performance crisis and we need to fix it as soon as possible," president and chief executive Ghosn told reporters in Tokyo in a conference call from Paris. "We don't take this lightly ... it's really an interrogation for us, about our management ways."

Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault and Nissan, said his companies would only open their alliance to US auto giant General Motors if they think the potential synergies justify the risk. The three companies have embarked on a 90 day review of the potential benefits of expanding the alliance to include the world's largest but struggling automaker. "If we come to a conclusion that the synergies are big enough to justify the efforts, then we can go to the second step" of deciding on a framework for an alliance, Ghosn told reporters here. But the talks will end if...

General Motors’ board of directors has voted to start exploratory discussions with Nissan and Renault on a potential business alliance — a plan first proposed one week ago by Kirk Kerkorian, GM’s largest shareholder. But would a deal with the automakers help boost GM’s flagging fortunes?