Want to play a round of "musical equipment" featuring Ghosn? Well, Yamaha certainly doesn't want Carlos Ghosn's hiding technique to become a thing. The company has taken measures to ensure that doesn't happen.
This week, the Japanese company reminded people that musical instrument cases are for objects, not people. In a tweet posted on Jan. 11, Yamaha warned people against cramming themselves inside their instrument cases to imitate, parody, or copy Carlos Ghosn's alleged escape technique. Earlier this month, there were media reports that claimed the Brazilian-Lebanese-French businessman and former Nissan boss allegedly >fled his home in Japan that way. According to other media reports, the business tycoon hid in a large audio equipment case to escape, not his home, but Japan as a whole as he boarded a private jet from Osaka to Turkey in that manner to eventually reach Lebanon in one piece. The case was too large to fit through the airport's x-ray scanner, so he managed to get away without getting scanned or caught.
"We won't mention the reason, but there have been many tweets about climbing inside large musical instrument cases. A warning after any unfortunate accident would be too late, so we ask everyone not to try it," the Japanese company wrote in a >tweet that has since amassed over 50,000 re-tweets.
Ghosn has been in the spotlight for quite some time, but even more so recently after escaping house arrest in Japan, where he had been under trial for financial misconduct. He arrived in Beirut prior to the start of 2020 and did so using private jets, public transportation (bullet trains), and boxes with holes to keep the oxygen circulating.
Ghosn was first arrested in November 2018 on allegations of under-reporting his earnings and misusing company assets; he was granted bail in March 2019. But his freedom didn't last long as he was re-arrested in Tokyo in April over new allegations regarding misappropriating Nissan's funds. He was released on bail on condition that he remains in Japan with 24-hour camera surveillance as he awaited trial to defend himself against charges of financial misconduct. But he decided to escape because he could "no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied."
Japanese authorities have since issued an international wanted notice for him and his wife Carole.
Ghosn's escape in a nutshell
Ghosn's escape from Japan has been getting quite the hype. After all, it seemed like a well-thought and planned escape ... costing quite a lot to make it as successful as it was.
Since arriving to Lebanon, a source told CNBC that a firm listed in Dubai agreed to pay $350,000 to MNG Jet, a Turkish private jet company, for two flights: one from Dubai, the UAE to Osaka, Japan and another from Osaka to Istanbul, Turkey. MNG Jet only received half of the amount, according to media reports. The company has since denied having any knowledge that one of its jets would be used to help Ghosn escape bail. After all, the businessman's name did not appear on any of the documents involved in the leasing of the aircraft; the client listed was in the name of someone called Dr. Ross Allen, a name that may or may not have been an alias to facilitate the escape.
But how exactly did he make it onto the private jet? Early media reports had claimed that the businessman had fled his residence in Tokyo by hiding in a large musical instrument case that was taken to a local airport in Japan, where he then hopped on a flight to Istanbul and then to Beirut. But those reports were actually false. The business tycoon simply walked out of his Tokyo residence as any normal person - who wasn't facing charges - would. CCTV footage revealed that Ghosn left his home on Dec. 29 around noon but never returned.
According to Japanese media, Ghosn met two U.S. citizens in a nearby hotel and then took a Shinkansen bullet train from Shinagawa station to the Japanese city of Osaka — a trip that normally takes around three hours. He then took a taxi to a hotel near Kansai airport where he is believed to have taken the private jet mentioned above to Istanbul, where he then switched planes and made it to Beirut.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Ghosn boarded the flight from Osaka in a large audio equipment case. Unnamed sources in Turkey have said that holes had been "drilled into the bottom of the container to ensure the businessman could breathe," as reported by The Guardian.
He was able to do all this with the help of a former U.S. Army Green Beret. Michael Taylor, a veteran of the U.S. Army's elite Special Forces (Green Berets) and a man who has worked undercover for the FBI, seems to be the mastermind behind Ghosn's grand escape. Taylor himself had pleaded guilty to two fraud charges and was sentenced to two years in prison ... and it wasn't his first time to plead guilty for a crime.
— The End.
*Waits for a Hollywood film to be made*