The millionaire smuggled out of Japan in a box: Was Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn a victim or a villain?

As a new Apple TV+ documentary series explores how a Nissan-Renault CEO went from international business mogul to international fugitive, Charlotte Lytton speaks to director James Jones about one of the strangest business-world scandals in recent memory

The former Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, followed by his wife Carole, is escorted to his Tokyo home in 2019 (AFP via Getty)

It was an escape plot so simple as to be unbelievable: the business mogul who fled a litany of career-ending charges in Japan, escaping by private jet while hidden in a music equipment box. Yet in the intervening five years, Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn’s 2019 getaway has left the world with one question: is he a victim, or a villain?

According to director James Jones (Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes), that’s the burning issue at the centre of Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn, a four-part documentary series beginning on Apple TV+ on 25 August. It traces the Lebanese-French-Brazilian impresario’s road from national hero status in France, Japan and beyond to international fugitive, via interviews with Ghosn, the men who helped him escape, and a series of key figures within Nissan and the Japanese justice system.

Ghosn had been riding high at the time of his arrest in October 2018. Spearheading the alliance between French carmakers Renault and Japan’s Nissan and Mitsubishi a decade earlier – saving the companies €3bn (£2.6bn) and earning him the nickname “Le Cost Killer” – Ghosn had presided over this auto-industry behemoth with an authority that seemed unimpeachable.