The new Netflix documentary 'Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn' tells the story of Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Nissan and Renault. He escaped from Japan while under house arrest - escaping to his homeland of Lebanon while hiding inside a large box which was loaded onto a private jet.
From 1999 to 2001, Ghosn rapidly rose through the ranks of Nissan from Chief Operating Officer to president and finally Chief Executive Officer. He was key in the formation of the Renault-Nissan Alliance (later expanded to include Mitsubishi). In 2005, Ghosn became Renault's president and then took on the CEO role in 2009. He is notable for being the first person to run two Fortune 500 companies (Nissan and Renault) at once.
Ghosn stepped down as Nissan's CEO in 2017 but remained its chairman until he was fired from the board in April 2019. This was six months after he had been arrested by Japanese authorities on accusations of under-reporting his income, misusing company funds, and diverting corporate investment for personal use.
In April 2019, Ghosn was placed under house arrest in Japan after spending 130 days in a jail cell. However, he managed to escape with help from a US father and son team who hid the former executive in a large box. Ghosn ran away to Lebanon, where he would be safe from Japan's extradition attempts.
In July 2021, Ghosn's two accomplices in his escape from Japan, Michael and Peter Taylor, were sentenced to jail time. Michael received a two-year sentence while Peter got 20 months. Even though five international arrest warrants have been issued by a French magistrate against Ghosn this year in April, he continues to live freely and relatively normally in Lebanon.
