Ex-Green Beret and his son arrested for helping Carlos Ghosn flee Japan
An ex-Green Beret and his son were arrested by authorities in the US Wednesday for allegedly helping Carlos Ghosn escape Japan in a concert equipment box.
Former US special forces soldier Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor are charged in the bizarre plot to smuggle the ousted Nissan CEO out of Japan in December.
Federal prosecutors want the pair jailed while they face extradition to Japan, saying they have an “aptitude for hatching escape plans on a grand scale.” Japanese authorities issued warrants for their arrest in January.
“The plot to spirit Ghosn out of Japan was one of the most brazen and well-orchestrated escape acts in recent history, involving a dizzying array of hotel meetups, bullet train travel, fake personas, and the chartering of a private jet,” prosecutors wrote in court filings seeking the Taylors’ detention.
Authorities nabbed Peter Taylor in Boston the same day that he planned to fly to Beirut, where Ghosn has been hiding out for nearly five months, according to prosecutors. It’s unclear where his father was arrested.
The pair, who live in Harvard, Mass., will appear via video for a court hearing Wednesday afternoon. Their lawyer, Paul Kelly, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Court papers unsealed in Massachusetts federal court outline how the Taylors helped smuggle Ghosn, 66, from Japan to Lebanon. They allegedly had help from a third man, George Antoine Zayek, whom Japanese prosecutors also want arrested.
Ghosn was out on bail in Tokyo while awaiting trial for allegedly under-reporting $80 million in compensation earnings and siphoning off company cash for his own use. He has denied the allegations and said he fled “persecution.”
Peter Taylor met with Ghosn at least seven times last year leading up to the late December escape, prosecutors said. On Dec. 28, he checked into a Tokyo hotel and then met with Ghosn again for about an hour, court papers say.
The following day, Michael Taylor and Zayek took a private jet from Dubai to Osaka, where they would board a plane with Ghosn late that night, prosecutors alleged. Telling airport workers they were musicians, they entered Japan with two audio equipment boxes — one of which would later carry Ghosn, according to court filings.
The pair later met Peter Taylor and Ghosn at the Tokyo hotel, where Ghosn changed his clothes in Peter’s room apparently using a key he was given the previous day, prosecutors say. Peter then headed to Tokyo’s Narita Airport and boarded a flight to China, authorities said.
Michael Taylor, Zayek and Ghosn continued by train to Osaka and went into a hotel around 8:15 p.m., prosecutors said. Taylor and Zayek left the hotel room with the two black boxes — one of which contained Ghosn — that were not checked when they got to the airport, according to court filings.
They then boarded a private jet to Turkey at about 11:10 p.m. and Ghosn announced two days later that he had made it to Lebanon, prosecutors said.
The Ghosn caper isn’t the only escape allegedly orchestrated by Michael Taylor, the founder of American International Security Corp. He has “facilitated the extractions of other individuals,” prosecutors said, such as journalist David Rohde, whom he helped free from Taliban captivity in 2009.
But Taylor also spent time behind bars after pleading guilty to wire fraud for allegedly paying kickbacks for $54 million in Defense Department contracts.
Japanese prosecutors have had a harder time getting their hands on Ghosn because Tokyo does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon. Authorities also issued an arrest warrant in January for his fashionista wife, Carol Ghosn, saying she perjured herself when she was interviewed about her husband’s alleged crimes. She later called the accusations “a bit of a joke.”