A Japanese court on Monday sentenced United States Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor to two years in prison and his son to one year and eight months for helping former Nissan Motor Company chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan, where he had faced charges of financial misconduct.
Michael Taylor and his son Peter pleaded guilty and apologized to the court last month, saying they regretted their role in smuggling Ghosn out of Japan hidden in a box aboard a private jet from Japan’s Kansai airport.
Ghosn remains a fugitive in his childhood home of Lebanon, which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Japan.
In Japan he faces charges he understated his compensation in Nissan’s financial statements by 9.3bn yen ($85m) over a decade and enriched himself at his employer’s expense through payments to car dealerships in the Middle East.
Greg Kelly, a former Nissan executive charged with helping Ghosn hide his compensation, is also on trial in Tokyo. Both Ghosn and Kelly deny the charges.
