Carlos Ghosn, the former car exec who made sweet music with Nissan for years before escaping arrest disguised as a trombone, is suing his one-time employer for $1 billion.
Ghosn was charged with financial misconduct in Japan in 2018 and held under house arrest, but fled to Lebanon the following year, claiming the charges against him were part of a plan by Nissan bosses to stop a Ghosn-led merger with Renault.
The one-time golden boy of the car industry is still wanted over criminal charges in Japan, where Nissan has also filed a civil suit seeking damages. But in a Lebanese court this summer it was Ghosn doing the accusing and asking for compensation.
According to Auto News, Ghosn filed a suit in the Court of Cassation in Lebanon in May of this year that accuses Nissan, two more firms, and 12 individuals of defamation, slander, libel, fabricating evidence, and other crimes. The 69-year-old wants $588 million in lost compensation and costs, plus $500 million in punitive measures.
Related: Carlos Ghosn Says Nissan Has Become A “Boring And Mediocre” Car Company
“The serious and sensitive accusations [leveled at Ghosn] will linger in people’s minds for years,” Ghosn’s legal team said in the lawsuit. “[He] will suffer from them for the remainder of his life, as they have persistent and lingering impacts, even if based on mere suspicion,” it continued.
Ghosn has not left his home country of Lebanon since escaping there from Japan in a caper that seemed to come straight from Hollywood’s playbook. When a band booked to play at the exec’s Japanese home was packing up to leave, the diminutive Nissan chief hid inside one of the larger cases designed to hold musical instruments, but which had been specially modified to hold a human. Ghosn was taken to a small local airport where he boarded a private plane bound for Istanbul, Turkey, before switching to another plane that took him to Lebanon.
Lebanon won’t extradite Ghosn, so he’s avoided jail time, but not everyone involved has been so fortunate. Father and son Michael and Peter Taylor were sentenced to 24 and 20 months in Japan for helping Ghosn flee after being extradited from the U.S.