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Kansai Airport, Japan: A Midnight Encounter on December 30th, 2019

It's close to midnight on December 30th, 2019, and Kansai Airport, Japan is bustling with activity. Unbeknownst to the airport security personnel, an ex-American Green Beret and his son are about to approach their checkpoint.

Carrying a large black box, they stand out amidst the crowd of travelers rushing to catch their flights. As they begin to unload their luggage, the security officer's eyes narrow slightly, sensing something unusual about this pair.

Airport Security asks,

"What seems to be the purpose of that large black box?"

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(computer screen sound)- Kansai Airport, Japan.It's close to midnighton December 30th, 2019.An ex-American Green Beret,and his son approach the security checkcarrying a large black box.Airport Security asks,"What's inside?"And the ex-Green Beretreplies, "Audio equipment."After a long tense moment,security waves the pairthrough to their gate.Luckily for the Americans,the box is too big tosend through the scanner.But had security just opened it,they would've found somethingway more interestingthan simple audio equipment.The fugitive ex-CEO of Nissanescaping the strangleholdof the Japanese justice system.But they didn't open it.And Carlos Ghosn was finally free.Why was he running?Why did Japan hate him?Was he framed?Well today we're gonna find out.This is everything you need to know,to get up to speed on Carlos Ghosn.(fast-paced arcade music)Big announcement.Probably the biggestannouncement we've ever made.The entire Donut crew is going on tour!We are gonna come to your town.If you live in five very specific cities.- That's right.(group laughs)- It's gonna be so good.(group laughs)- It's a live theater experience,based on all of our YouTubey stuff.You're gonna be hearingabout some car stuff,some tool stuff.- Some joke stuff, lotsof audience participation.It's gonna be a really, really fun time.Tickets go on sale Friday, April 8th.There's also VIP tickets available.Those are very limited.So if you wanna meet us in-person,and take selfies, or whatever.And ask us questions.You better hurry and get those.- This is new.I'm new.Come check us out.(speaker laughs)- We're really, really,really excited about this.I'm really, really, really excitedto perform live for you guys.Excited to meet you guys,and excited to be in your town.So go to donutlive.com.Get you tickets today.I can't wait to meet you.If you asked a screenwriter to createa larger-than-life,boss character.Who's cunning,callous,and maybe a little evil.You'd get Carlos Ghosn.Carlos is a polarizing figurein the corporate automotive world.But he's also driven,smart,and has lived a million lives.He has nicknames like people-killer,due to the snap decisions he makesthat result in tens of thousands of peoplelosing their jobs.But if he didn't do what he had to do,there's a good chance thatNissan wouldn't be around today.So does that make him a villain?I don't know.To understand, we're gonnahave to take a look backat the state of Nissan in the 1990s.(static television sound)Now around here,we think of the 1990s as theGolden Era of Japanese cars,and right at the center ofthe JDM universe was Nissan.Around this time they rolledout cars like the 180SX.The S14,and S15 Silvias.Z32300ZX.R33 G-TR,and R34 Skyline.Whee!(static television sound)I just wanna emphasize,how unusual and cool it is thata company as big as Nissan,offered this many sportscars at the same time!These cars were balanced.They handled great.And they could take a ton of boost,which quickly made themfavorites for car enthusiasts,around the world.From Japan to Australia,to the U.S.People sang their praises.But on the business side,Nissan was failing harderthan Joe Weber on a skate box.(skateboard falling)Nissan spent a ton of money,to develop and produce these cars,to develop and produce these cars,like way too much money.Their supply chain usedan antiquated system.So they spent 15 to 25% more moneythan other car manufacturers,just on supplies.But they priced their cars competitively,and not based on theirmanufacturing costs.Which means that for everycar that they sold in the U.S.They were losing about a thousand dollars.(car crashes)(retro electronic music)If you're selling something,you wanna make more moneythan you spend on it.(static television sound)As the 90's came to an end,Nissan had not made aprofit in eight years.And they were more than$20 billion in debt.They were in bad shape,and something needed to happen,or else they would go extinct.(dinosaur roars)Enter Carlos Ghosn.(jackpot machine music)Beginning in 1978,Ghosn spent 18 years working at Michelin,Europe's largest tire maker.He climbed the ranks from Plant Manager,all the way to COO of MichelinSouth American operations,where he was tasked with fixinghis branch of the company.Now there's one thing,that you gotta know about Carlos Ghosn.My man makes moves, fast moves!He brought his branch back from bankruptcyin only two years.And was handsomelyrewarded with the title,as President and COO ofMichelin North America.One year later, Ghosn waspromoted again to CEO.And presided over therestructuring of the companyafter Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire purchased it.But being the big bossmanwasn't enough for Ghosn.He was hungry for more.Hungry Hungry Hippos for more.In 1996, Ghosn left Michelinto become the ExecutiveVice President at Renault.In charge of purchasing,advanced research,engineering and development,powertrain operations,manufacturing.Now if that wasn't enough,he was also in charge ofRenault's South American Division.This man loves jobs!Meanwhile, my resume is a half-page long,double-spaced.Ghosn restructured Renault,over the course of his first year.And once more,raised profits big time.By 1999 he helped form theRenault-Nissan Alliance,after Renault purchased acontrolling stake in Nissan.And that is how Ghosnlanded his newest gig,COO,of Nissan.After only a year as COO,Ghosn was made president.And one year later, CEO.Now you might be asking yourself, "James,""What's the difference betweena president and a CEO?"Well, just like in America,a CEO is more powerful than the president.Point is when I said Ghosn makes huge,ambitious,get-outta-my-way moves.He means it.So that brings us backto Nissan's awful,financial situation.Now when Ghosn took the reins,Nissan was nearly bankrupt,and hadn't made a profitfor almost a decade.Only three of its 46 models sold in Japan,were generating revenue.Meaning, there were 43 duds lying around.Like when you drop acontainer of Milk Dudson the floor at the movie theater,and count 'em like Rain Man.Ghosn quickly announceda "Nissan Revival Plan,"and called for a return to profitability.I know!Crazy!The old CEO was like, "Whoa!""Why didn't I think about profitability?""That would've been a goodidea for this business!"And then Ghosn made it personal.And he promised that if hecouldn't turn things around,he'd resign from his post in 2002.This is the kind of big ballsy promises,only someone super confident.Or,super stupid would make.Which one was he?Now when he said he hadmajor changes planned,he was not lying.He cut 21,000 jobs.That's 14% of the total workforce.He shutdown five Japanese plants,and auctioned off belovedassets like the Aerospace Unit.For fun, he'd also spearheadedsome wildly unpopularcorporate culture changes.Like eliminating seniority-basedand age-based promotions,which were a staple ofJapanese business culture.Maybe it goes without saying,but this is when his Japanese coworkers,began to turn on him.So,naturally,he made everything worse.He changed the official company language,from Japanese to English.And he didn't stop there.Ghosn decided to really cut costs.And Nissan would be forced to cut corners,where it mattered,in their cars.Interiors were strippeddown of any luxury.Metal engine parts werereplaced with plastic ones.Development time was cut down.But one of the biggestways Nissan saved money,during this time,was by using one transmission,across a bunch of different cars.Now this isn't that uncommon, right?But the transmission they chosefor all of these cars was a CVT,or continuously variable transmissions.Basically, instead ofhaving separate gears,the CVT uses one gearthat's lengthened by the use of pulleys.CVTs are pretty whack now.But as you can imagine,they were even worse 20 years ago.Nissan owners reportedsluggish throttle response,shuddering,shaking,and finally complete CVT failure.Basically, the transmissions(beep) sucked, dude.Why do we gotta use these bro?They suck, Carlos!Ask anybody, man.Even if you had a Nissanwith a pretty good enginelike the VQ.You couldn't reliably put down the power,via these CVTs.But hey, it saved Ghosnmoney on the production line.And annoyingly it didn'tstop people from buying them.Everyone and their aunts had Altimas.Sentras became the defaulteconomy rental car.Muranos!Muranos clogged up Starbucks drive-thrus.(cars honking)Which brings me to my next point.The worst part aboutthe Nissan Revival Plan,is it worked.Like FreeRide.Do you know how hard itis to make that show?Please stop watching it.If it gets views, we have to make more.Ghosn set out to reduce50% of the debt level,and create a profit marginin excess of 4.5% of sales,by the end of 2002.These were Mount Everest goals.It was a huge ask for a companythat spent eight years in the red.But guess what?He climbed that mountain,and didn't even lose a toe.I'm talking,solo free climb alpinist.In one year under Ghosn,Nissan's consolidatednet profit after-tax,climbed to 2.7 billion.(cash register rings)Just one year earlier,Nissan posted a loss,of 6.46 billion.(audience gasps)When all was said and done,the Nissan Revival Plansucceeded a full nine monthsbefore his self-imposed deadline.Ghosn then did what all normal,high-achieving corporate sharks do.He hit a plateau.Just kidding!Why'd you believe me?You idiot!This guy never plateaus!He shark swims or shark sinks!Ghosn put out the Nissan 180 plan.A brand new three year growth plan,which he also crushed.This guy loves crushing.He crushes all day.What is he?Big Pun, rest in peace.(kisses noisily)Now, as you can probably tell,Ghosn was an insanely successful,yet infamous CEO.One who took risks,and wasn't afraid to sit alonein the corporate lunchroom.He didn't need company,so long as his companywas making money, baby.(cash register rings)And for a while,he was getting by just fine.After he was named Presidentand CEO of Renault,Ghosn became the first person,to run two Fortune Global 500companies, simultaneously.In 2016,he helped Nissan acquire acontrolling stake in Mitsubishi.Which meant that he hadyet another new job,as Chairman at Mitsubishi.Because heaven forbid,he ever showed up to dinnerwith his wife and kids one time.Are you ever gonna come to a soccer game?What's my position?What's my number?What's my birthday?In 2017, Ghosn steppeddown as Renault's CEO,but kept his Chairman post.Perhaps he wanted to spend more timewith his second wife, Carole.Whom he'd married at a MarieAntoinette themed wedding,at Versailles.This Versailles.Or maybe he knew it wasall too good to be true.Whatever the case,much like Louis the 16th,Ghosn's time of incrediblewealth and excess,would soon come to an end.(audience gasps)November 18th, 2018.Ghosn's private jet landed in Japan.Shortly after Ghosn deplaned,he was arrested by Tokyodistrict prosecutors.A little later Nissan's Chief Executive,Hiroto Saikawa announced that Ghosn,had been kicked off Nissan's board.His crime?Ghosn along with his topaide, a guy named Greg Kelly,under-reported their compensation.Now that's a violation of securities law.And they used company assetsfor personal investment.Now the company didn'tprovide exact numbers.But the Japanese media claimedthat Nissan paid for Ghosn's homes in Rio,Beirut,Paris,and Amsterdam.And that he had charged familyvacations to the company.These purchases alongwith expense paymentswere handled by,and this is where it gets pretty bad.A shell company,set up by Greg Kelly atthe beginning of 2010.Now that was around the timeGhosn divorced his first wife,and began his relationshipwith his second.Now, I get it.Dating can be expensive.All of a sudden you're expectedto have fricking toilet paperin your house all the time?To avoid reporting his full compensation,Ghosn also had Cousin Greg setup complicated payment plansthat Nissan auditors didn't sign off on.The total haul?A very cool,$80 million.(jackpot machine music)So after Ghosn was arrested,he was taken to the Tokyo Detention House,which is the sickest named jail.Now at the Tokyo Detention Houseyou could be detained legallyfor up to 23 days withoutfiling criminal charges.I know, it sounds likeit should be illegal.But here's something you need to know.Japan has a 99.4% conviction rate.Meaning, that almost 100% ofpeople accused of a crime,in Japan are convicted.Japan does not (beep) around.We could go through everysingle minute detailof the vast charges Ghosn faced.But honestly, there were a lot.And I don't say vast that often.Every time Ghosn got closeto getting out on bail,Japan would bring up new charges,that would restart the clock.It was like GroundhogDay Two, Japanese prison.All in all, Ghosn'simprisonment without baillasted until March.That is four monthsafter his initial arrest.Four months?Now, if TikTok tells me anything,that is long enough to get really goodat making tamales outta Hot Cheetos.And remember, he was stilltechnically Renault's CEO.Until January, whenFrance's Financial Ministerpublicly suggested thatthe company fire him.It is not a great look,to have your CEO rottingaway in a Japanese jail.If you've learnedanything about the Ghosn,the man does not go down without a fight.(boxing bell ring)Sure to make bail,he had to pay $9 million,was barred from traveling abroad,had to maintain a given address,under 24 hour camera surveillancewith no internet access,and wasn't allowed to contact his wife.Sure.(James chuckles)But even though he agreed to these rules,Ghosn would tell anyone who would listenthat his charges were nothing morethan plot and treasonby Nissan executives.Of course he was gonna say that,but maybe there was something there.Leaks to the media reported,that Ghosn had planned tocall a vote at a board meetingto fire Nissan's CEO, Saikawa.And reinstate Cousin Greg.Now this would've all gone down,just after his initial arrest.Which is suspicious, right?But even though this seems a little fishy,it's worth noting that both Renaultand the U.S. Securitiesand Exchange Commission,found evidence of Ghosn's alleged crimes.So, it's pretty clearthat the man was milkingall his job cows foreverything they were worth.Which is perhaps when ourfriend Carlos realized,he may never get a chanceto freely surf the internet,or sleep next to his MarieAntoinette stan of a wife again.And this brings us,to the time that CarlosGhosn escaped to Beirut,in a box.On December 29th, 2019,Ghosn left his Tokyoapartment around 6:30 PMto meet up with two men at a hotel.I mean, we've all been there, right?The team he hired to gethim the (beep) out of Tokyonoticed that Japanesesecurity would follow Ghosn,nearly everywhere,except into hotels.The three men then boardeda bullet train to Osaka,where they dropped into another hotel,near the Kansai Airportjust after 8:00 PM.A few hours later,only two men left the hotel,headed towards the airport,with a suspiciously largeaudio equipment box.Brilliant.(box banging closed)These men were later identified,as former U.S. ArmySpecial Forces soldier,Michael Taylor and his son, Peter.With the help of these Americans,the audio equipment box wasloaded onto a private jet.The plane took off close to midnight,(plane flying)and landed in Istanbul the next day.From there, Ghosn took asecond jet to Beirut, Lebanon.His childhood home,and a country that has noextradition laws with Japan.(game buzzer ring)Convenient.Carlos Ghosn was free.In all Ghosn said that eventhough he was only in the box,for an hour and a half.It felt like a year and a half.(James grunts)That sucks in there.It sucks.It's very scary,and uncomfortable.It felt like a year and a half, for sure.Japan couldn't do anything,about their favorite disgraced CEO.Ghosn held a press conference,following his daring escapethat pissed everybody off,even more!A Lebanese prosecutorimposed a travel ban.All of his lawyers quit.Nissan sued him for $90 million,standard millionaire,fugitive stuff, you know?The Americans that helped him escape,eventually pled guilty in Tokyo.And admitted they receivedmore than a million dollarsin bank transfers and Bitcoin.Crypto boyfriend-style.I have Crypto, blockchain dude.Papa Green Beret was sentencedto two years imprisonment,and Baby Green Beret received 20 months.A third guy was sentenced too,but he wasn't in the family.And I don't wanna (beep)the flow of this story.Well, as of now, Ghosn isstill technically on the run.But that doesn't mean he'sbeen out of the spotlight.He does occasional interviews,in an attempt to clear his name.Or maybe just to troll people.There's a great one on the drive.com.I'll put a link to it below.It was really helpful in researching this.He also released a bookabout his experience titled"Broken Alliances,""Inside the Rise and Fall ofGlobal Automotive Empire."It involves Japanese and French politics,a scathing rebuke of theJapanese judicial system.And of course,addresses Nissan's alleged internal coup.Now this story is completely insane.But the most insane thing about it,is that it's still not entirelyclear what happened here.Like yeah, he avoided prison time,thanks to a Green Beret and his son.In a box that was toobig for airport security.But since Ghosn's escape,there have been someinteresting internal emailsleaked from Nissanexecs that make it clearthat there was some kind ofconspiracy to frame Ghosn.And without a fair trial,we may never know what exactly happenedbehind the scenes at Nissan,with Carlos Ghosn.Thank you guys so muchfor watching this video.We've touched on thisstory a number of times,on this channel,and on the podcast channel.And it keeps getting better.It keeps getting,it's still going.So pay attention to that.Check out the other videos.Nolan has made a numberof WheelHouses about it,and there will probably be more.This is like international,like crime stuff.It's pretty fun.If you haven't already,hit that subscribe buttonto make sure you don't miss anything.Go to donutmedia.com.Get yourself some merch.I am so excited about our merch program.We're dropping newstuff, almost every week.Big thanks to Joe,Christina,Gio and Nick,for helping make this video.They're right back there.Cool guys.I (beep) love you, dude.I love you.