A Turkish private jet company has claimed it was duped into hiring the aircraft used to help the fugitive automotive boss Carlos Ghosn make a daring escape from Japan.
MNG Jet said it leased two private jets it believed were for two separate clients, one flying from Dubai to Osaka in Japan and then on to Istanbul, and another flying from Istanbul to Beirut.
The company said it had since discovered the planes were not leased for the named passengers but were instrumental in Ghosn’s escape to Lebanon from Japan, where the former Nissan chairman was facing trial over allegations of financial misconduct. He has consistently denied the charges.
MNG Jet said it had filed a criminal complaint in Turkey to prosecute anyone involved in using the jets, which it said it had leased believing they were for other people.
“One employee of the company, who is under investigation by the authorities, has admitted having falsified the records,” the company said.
“He confirmed that he acted in his individual capacity, without the knowledge or the authorisation of the management of MNG Jet.
“MNG Jet is proactively cooperating with the authorities and hopes that the people who illegally used and/or facilitated the use of the services of the company will be duly prosecuted.”
The company did not say who was the subject of its criminal complaint, nor who were the named passengers on the aircraft leasing contracts.
Ghosn, 65, who fled while on bail, is expected to speak to the media in Beirut on Wednesday, in a public appearance that could provide answers to myriad questions swirling around his escape. Ghosn arrived in Lebanon on Monday.
The most widely circulated account, that he was carried out of his Tokyo residence in a wooden musical instrument case and departed on a private jet from Kansai airport in western Japan, has been challenged by his 53-year-old wife, Carole Ghosn.
She described this as “fiction” but declined to provide details of her husband’s escape.
Ghosn issued a statement on Thursday denying that his wife or other family members had any involvement in the plot, which could place participants in legal peril. Speculation that they were involved was “inaccurate and false”, Ghosn said, adding: “I alone arranged for my departure. My family had no role whatsoever.”
According to reports in Japan, a surveillance camera captured Ghosn leaving his central Tokyo residence alone shortly before he fled.
The security footage was taken by a camera installed at his house at about noon on Sunday, and the camera did not show him returning home, according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK. Ghosn’s bail conditions included a requirement that his home be placed under 24-hour camera surveillance.
NHK said the police suspected that Ghosn may have left his home to meet up with someone before heading to an airport.
Lebanon received an Interpol arrest warrant for Ghosn on Thursday while Turkey has launched an investigation into his escape from Japan, via Istanbul.
Ghosn, the former chair of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi carmaking alliance, was first arrested in November 2018 and has been charged with four counts of financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust. He has denied allegations that he understated his salary by tens of millions of dollars as head of Nissan, and that he used company funds to cover up personal investment losses.
In April 2019, the Frenchman was re-arrested and accused of mismanagement of company funds in relation to $15m (£11.5m) in Nissan funds paid to a distributor in Oman between 2015-18. He denied any financial irregularities, adding that “under no circumstances has all or part of such payments benefited Carlos Ghosn or his family”.
He has repeatedly indicated that he did not expect to receive a fair trial in Japan and has called on the French government to protect him.
