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The American father and son accused of orchestrating Carlos Ghosn’s elaborate escape from Japan by bullet train, private plane and box of music equipment have pleaded guilty in a Tokyo court.
Michael Taylor, 60 old Green Beret, and their 28-year-old son Peter were extradited to Japan this year after their arrest in 2020 in Boston. They face up to three years in prison.
The two appeared handcuffed in front of a three-judge court in Tokyo district court on Monday. Prosecutors read a statement setting out the details of the plot to extract the old Nissan chair from a large house in central Tokyo in Lebanon after changing planes in Turkey.
The escape, which involved moving Ghosn between Tokyo and Osaka hotels before hiding it in a specially modified box and claiming it was equipment for concerts, involved months of planning.
This included finding out which airports in Japan had security vulnerabilities that could be exploited at the crucial time the box was moved to a private jet without its human contents being checked.
Ghosn, who remains in Lebanon i claims he faced his daring escape as an attempt to “flee from injustice” multiple loads financial misconduct. Ghosn denies the charges.
When the chief judge asked if there was any error in the prosecutor’s statement that helped Ghosn escape, Michael Taylor, wearing a mask, a dark suit and a white shirt, said, “No, your honor.” . His son also answered “No” to a similar question.
In front of the Taylors US extradition, his lawyers had argued his innocence, claiming that since the act of “skipping bail” was not technically a crime in Japan, helping someone do so could not be.
On Monday, the couple did not discuss the claims filed by prosecutors. But his lawyer tried to downplay Peter’s role in the plot, saying his involvement was “a mere accessory for Michael,” even though the father and son had the same responsibility in the indictment.
According to the prosecutors’ opening statement, Ghosn had been planning his escape from Japan since about June 2019 and asked Michael to orchestrate the plan initially through his wife, Carole.
Four months later, Ghosn made $ 862,500 in cable payments to a Peter-run company to cover private jet fees after multiple secret meetings between the two men in Tokyo. The scheme was finally carried out with the help of George Zayek, a private security contractor of Lebanese nationality, who is also wanted by Japanese authorities.
The first day of the trial revealed how Ghosn had easily overlooked what his wife had described as Japan’s “punitive and inhumane” bail conditions, as the former president often communicated with the Taylors through the Signal messaging app. through a telephone contract set up by his sister, and held secret meetings in Tokyo at his lawyer’s office, according to prosecutors.
After Japanese authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Taylors after the escape, prosecutors said Michael asked for legal fees and Ghosn transferred a value of about $ 500,000 to Peter’s account through the Taylors’ account. his son. Towards the end of Monday’s session, Peter was said to have confessed that helping Ghosn was the worst thing he had done in his life.
Greg Kelly, the former Ghosn MP, is also on trial in Tokyo. fighting charges which helped Nissan’s old chair disguise the true scale of his salary.
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