The Fugitive Tycoon

He was the legendary boss of Renault who brought Nissan back from the brink of collapse. Then, in 2018, multimillionaire Carlos Ghosn was arrested and accused of financial misconduct on a huge scale. Three months ago came his daring escape from Japan.

- Tim Bouquet

He's rather red in the face as he emerges from the lift on the top floor of one of Beirut’s classic boutique hotels, his security man in tow.

“Sunburn,” Carlos Ghosn says, briskly shaking hands. “I was skiing yesterday. It’s very easy to burn when the weather is as beautiful as this.”

It’s the third day of March 2020 and as Carlos gazes out over the sun-bathed skyline of Lebanon’s capital, he admits that there were times in the past year when he thought he’d never see the sun again.

Wearing expensive loafers and dressed entrepreneur-casual in a blazer and slacks, Carlos (66) doesn’t look like a man who’s on the run. But on the run he is.

He’s one of the best-known and most successful figures in the car industry, a globally admired maestro who turned Nissan from near-bankruptcy to billion-dollar profits in two years.

But then Carlos jumped his 1,5 billion yen (R250 million) bail-in Japan and a potential 15-year jail sentence for alleged financial misconduct during the two decades he was CEO and then chairman of Renault-Nissan.

The Japanese have accused him of hiding the true extent of his multimillion-dollar earnings and retirement benefits, as well as diverting company cash for his and his family’s benefit in the form of nepotism and the purchase of properties in Rio and Beirut. And questions are being asked about who paid for two lavish parties – one to celebrate his wedding and another for the 50th birthday party of his wife, Carole, at the Palace of Versailles in France.