- There are stories that your friends tell you
after you have a couple of two, three white claws.
(creeking)
Or screwball and Cokes which are actually fantastic,
by the way if you're over the age of 21.
If you're under the age of 21 I-
- [Animation] This is the police. (beep)
- [Alex] I cannot legally tell you
- [Animation] Come out with your hands above your head.
but they're good, all right?
But, there's stories that you just don't believe.
The friend who beat a ZR1 in their stock, 370Z.
The first time a track car
you know, go drifted round an accident.
Somebody's talking about all their
at road Marriott drove around an accident
(screeching)
or someone who got their wheels, tires and suspension,
from somewhere besides fitmentindustries.com.
You just don't believe it.
- [Animation] Pikachu.
- Until you see the GoPro footage.
Then you're like, "Wow, that was really underwhelming."
Because for some reason,
GoPro footage is extremely underwhelming
(engine roaring)
even though you felt like you
were pretty much like Vin Diesel, all right?
- [Animation] They never have.
- I'm Alex, Alex.fi, find me on Instagram
and today's episode of who?
What?
We're gonna be talking
about a story that plays out just a little bit too much
like a Hollywood action movie.
(suspenseful music)
Like quite literally
I think to myself, there's no way this is actually true
until it kind of, sort of is.
It makes me sad, again.
A story that talks about none other
than the rise and fall of a now international fugitive.
(upbeat music)
Oh, yeah.
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We have everything your literal little itsy-bitsy.
I can't do the words right now.
(instrumental music)
We have actual black Friday and cyber Monday stuff too.
And we have a whole month long
with deals for the month of November
because we just didn't want to pile it all onto one day.
(ding)
'Cause if we do that and then I have a panic attack
when I wake up on Saturday morning.
(whooshing)
Let's talk about a man named Carlos Ghosn.
Carlos G. we're gonna call him.
A man born in Brazil in 1954 and grew up
through his college years
in France before taking his first job at Michelin.
Carlos was a man that was extremely intuitive
and ingenuitive and he wanted to just grow up
and be the biggest and best.
From there and pretty much his entire business career,
the man just grew.
All right, like miracle grow, grew.
(twinkling)
He took on a manufacturing facility
at Michelin and then it didn't take him long to
then head up the research and development for Mitchelin.
And once his clock struck the good all year of 30,
he was already the Chief Operating Officer
of Michelin for South America.
It was a pretty successful stint considering
it's pretty hard to move up in some of those big countries.
And honestly, it's pretty neat.
He then move over to become the COO
of Michelin North America,
which is essentially the worst region
for league just saying, and then became the CEO
in a matter of months.
The growth caught wind and especially
as you're head hunting, when you was big cooperation
(bang)
that everybody really kind of gets scared
of when you start making a lot of money,
people started noticing this man just growing
and doing well.
The growth caught wind of nearly everyone
in the automotive industry, including the cool
and sleek Renault at the time who would bring him
on to become the executive vice president
of Renault at 30, 30 years old.
And as if not skilled enough this now international fugitive
which is getting to the punchline a little bit early.
He would then be the one that
bridged the Nissan-Renault Alliance
taking on the Chief Operating Officer position
of Nissan while retaining his Executive Vice President role
at Renault.
After Y2K, this man became CEO of Nissan.
Four years later, he took on Renault.
This dude had so much in such a short period
of time between Michelin, Renault and Nissan.
It was astounding.
And we're talking
about somebody who really knew how to play chess.
Carlos was one of those people, the man was smart
and he was really good at taking on business acquisitions.
So while some would say he was a bit cruel
in his unorthodox methods of turning businesses around,
it did unfortunately work.
In early 2000s, Nissan wasn't really in good shape
by any means and because he didn't follow the typical mantra
of Japanese business practices
while retaining employee workforce
which is something that's very well known
in the Japanese culture.
He ended up laying off tens of thousands
of jobs, adjusting facilities and factories and squeezing
literally every penny possibly could
from the operation to turn Nissan
from a company that was on the brink literal weeks away
from bankruptcy to growing nearly 250%
of what seemed like just a few you short weeks.
Again, people did not really like the music
and they they're kind of scared
of him because he did that a lot.
And one of the last moves he would
make would then be his chairman acquisition
of Mitsubishi motors in late 2016.
Another company
on the brink of disaster, Carlos was a smart dude.
He kind of just swooped in
(humming)
and would just be like,
"Hey, I can help you but we're gonna need a little bit
of a partnership going on."
He would go off to win some
of the most notorious business awards in the world
by doing it and this mentality and growing and growing
and growing and never really shaking any workload off.
He would get businessman of the year for fortune.
All right.
A non-Japanese business leader to earn the Blue Ribbon Medal
of Japan, like from Japan's emperor.
All right.
In 2006, he became a Knight commander of the British empire.
Which is like one below, an actual night.
He was like the unofficial, not known version
of Elon Musk, pretty much.
Okay?
But when it all came
to an odd and weird halt, was a year after he stepped down
from Nissan in 2017.
This was just a few short years ago.
2018 would be the year that he'd be met
after he got off of his private jet plane.
He didn't know when he'd be back again
because there were Japanese authorities waiting there
for him, pull his ass to jail.
All right?
It was in February.
They claimed that the man who owned
it nearly three multi-billion dollar
automotive industry giants
had conducted financial misconduct.
Here's where it actually gets weird.
While Nissan was accused of under-reporting around
$43 million in salary to Carlos and another 16 million
in personal losses, redirected to the company
versus personal taxes that Carlos was supposed to be paying
according to the statement,
Carlos felt he was being sabotaged.
He felt like the people were out to get him.
That it was not because any misconduct
but only because people at Nissan wanted
to see him out.
And it was no doubt to consider when your nickname
in the factories was, "Le cost killer."
All right?
I mean, not necessarily the name you want to be associated
with, which also meant removing jobs.
And what it was all pretty much subjective at the time.
And he said, she said the Japanese government
and Carlos's lawyer began getting into discussions
on where exactly the facts were in this case.
It was something that was a little bit weird for everyone
and it came almost out of nowhere back a few years ago
because they just yanked his ass off to jail.
(clinking)
Now, everybody was asking questions.
The Japanese government is a little
bit different when it comes to prosecutions,
for better or for worse.
Whether in the United States
for most people just blow up on social media
they create hashtags, assume everyone is guilty.
And by the time it's determined that the person
wasn't guilty, everybody's onto the next thing.
And they really don't actually care
if the person was guilty or not, because of way
way more sensitive, assume that everybody's guilty.
In Japan, it's a little bit more of a mental game.
All right?
Those accused of such things like Carlos
are usually just subjugated
to isolation where the case is processed
but they don't really allow the
person that's being trialed to talk
to anyone to really go anywhere, to really do anything.
They can talk to no one, pretty much complete isolation
from the outside world, including his very own wife.
And the goal is just to essentially try to come
up with a case
before the person even knows what's gonna happen to them.
Carlos would get out of jail on bail,
which was pretty intense
and a rarity for even the Japanese government
without releasing a confession, which was really weird.
And when he did leave
he was trying to hide as normal worker
as to not raise any media suspicion.
It's a really funny picture.
You haven't seen it
but it didn't work because everybody was there waiting
for him to come out, which is actually hilarious.
He then be hauled off to jail again and again,
and a few more times
as random items and misconduct was being brought
forth in hopes to get Carlos to confess, they'd let him out.
And then they pulled them back to jail.
Then he'd go on bail.
Then he'd come back out
and they pull him back in and then he goes on jail.
So Carlos did the exact opposite.
All right?
He was getting pulled back in
and out so many times he decided to just mission impossible
his own ass out of Japan.
All right?
There's a few stories on how he escaped.
He was in his penthouse in Japan
and he just wasn't there one day.
Some say it was because he hired a Georgian band
that came to play with him
and he snuck out in the equipment case.
Or he did just walk out according to Carlos and Carlos'
lawyer team, but maybe he bat manned out of a window
with a case, nobody really knows.
Whatever it was, he got out.
He jumped on a bullet train to Asaka
and he met up with privately hired contractors.
All right?
Who have experienced and extracting people
from countries to get him out of Japan.
They then put him in a slightly bigger box
from the box that apparently he left
from his apartment in, snuck him
through the Kansai International Airport, not the wheels,
and because they couldn't screen oversize luggage,
they just put them on a private jet.
And then they paid people in their stop
in Turkey and then made his way to Lebanon where had been
from where he'd be safe from extradition and from the eyes
of the Japanese government, because Lebanon, moved there,
he was born there, he's got citizenship there.
Pretty much good to go.
And it just give it a little bit more
of the Hollywood sauce, him and his family are now residing
in the home in Lebanon that was previously purchased
by Nissan for Carlos.
All right?
The moment this whole thing happened
Nissan cut ties like just the redheaded stepchild.
They just didn't want nothing to do with him.
All right?
But Carlos then took over the house
and they tried to evict them and he just won't leave.
He's released statements
accusing his adversaries for the actions
of the Japanese government claiming
they want him to make a confession
versus providing any substantial evidence
that he had any major wrongdoing.
On top of that, Turkey is just trying to slap as
many people around as humanly possible
because they had to go through Turkey to get to Lebanon.
Turkey is turning to try and red card
his ass in Lebanon, but Lebanon doesn't really mind Carlos.
They gave him a stamp with his face on it.
Japan is trying to arrest him and his wife.
Nissan blames Carlos for all the poor misconduct.
And apparently Nissan is just God's green gift to earth now.
And Renault got quiet.
Renault didn't really switch sides or anything like that.
They did allow him to resign
but they never really fired him.
And Mitsubishi was just trying to make cool sports cars
a poopy SUV.
I'm not really sure what Mitsubishi's up to, honestly.
Everybody's over here,
and Mitsubishi just seems to be over here.
A man that was once quite literally on top
of the world in like the automotive industry
became an international fugitive literally
in a matter of days, and still is actually.
Whether he's in the wrong or not,
it's still something that not many people know
because he just keeps saying it wasn't him,
from Lebanon sitting there not arrested.
We just have to see how it unfolds.
But this man, literally he was on top of the world.
And in a matter of days decided to go become
an international fugitive.
But what do you think?
Is this the classic story of someone who
finally got caught skimming off the top?
Or is it a coup the top?
Let us know what you think
and what you'd like us to talk about next.
And if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires of sprints, and be sure to hit us
up over at fitmentindustries.com
where we literally have it all
including vehicles, wheels
tires, and suspension for your Nissan,
Renault or Mitsubishi.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
And we will see you later.
Peace.