A Tokyo court has handed down prison terms for the American father and son who were arrested over the allegations of helping Nissan’s former CEO, Carlos Ghosn, to escape from Japan while he was awaiting trial.
Michael Taylor was sentenced Monday to two years in prison, and his son Peter has been sentenced to one year and eight months.
Taylors have been charged with helping Ghosn escape in December 2019, who hid in a big box that was flown on a private jet through Turkey to Lebanon.
Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan.
Chief Judge Hideo Nirei said both Taylors had committed a serious breach of the law, as now there is basically no chance of putting Ghosn on trial.
“This case allowed Ghosn, a defendant of a serious crime, to escape overseas,” he said.
Although the defense argued the two had been only used by Ghosn, they clearly were involved and took part in the escape, regardless of who engineered it, he said.
Ghosn was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on charges of misusing Nissan’s funds for personal gain. Ghosn has rejected these allegations.
The Taylors were arrested in Massachusetts in May 2020 and were extradited to Japan in March 2021. During their trial, they said they had been misled by Ghosn about Japan’s criminal justice system.
Michael Taylor said he was “broke,” denying any monetarily benefit from the escape, adding that $1.3 million, which the prosecutors said Ghosn paid them, only covered expenses.
But the judge said the court found that the motive was money.
Judge added that the Taylors can appeal within two weeks.
