Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn

This is a very interesting documentary. Sadly lacks in details on his life before Nissan, and the corporate wrongdoings that eventually brought him down. Probably the filmmakers were restricted legally with what they could present in this film, which is understandable (presumed innocent until proven guilty). It does make for good viewing though. I would've like to hear more about the corporate culture that he had created which likely led to a lot of corruption internally within the company, or even allowed Carlos Ghosn to abuse his position in both Nissan and Renault. Obviously he made a lot of enemies during his time leading both companies and it would've been interesting to explore who they were and how he crossed them as well.

When I was in business school, the man was a legend.

This documentary portrays a man being credited for making Renault and Nissan literal dozens of billions, in cash. We're talking financial results here, not equity market valuation.

Then we see how power corrupts the man. When going back to France to head Renault, lying about giving up the reins of Nissan, and holding on to them instead. How he lived on a plane between the two HQs. How he surrounded himself with yes men. How his hair grew, his glasses disappeared, his Sarkozy style shoes made him taller, his suits got nicer, his wife got dumped, his own image PR went on overdrive, how he lost touch with his mission, his people, and reality. The unnecessarily long segment on the galerie des glaces in Versailles was so absurd, it's hard to feel sorry for the guy.

If you've read a biography of a dictator, you've read them all. Humans aren't wired to have that much power. There's a fair amount of Putin in his image propaganda, a lot of Stalin in his entourage of yes men.

As pretty much always, follow the money. He made the companies billions in cash in the bank. Because France and because Japan, his compensation remained hidden for many years. Then people had a wtf moment when they found out, to which ghosn replied "ford CEO makes 4x". So using a complex and hidden structure of companies, he bought real estate in holiday destinations, and embezzled funds. If Renault entities buy jewelry and houses in Rio I'd bet my money on embezzlement.

The Japanese are portrayed as joyful idiots until one morning the whole system conspires to throw him in jail without due process. Apparently the absence of due process in Japan is called due process.

I wish there had been more quantitative and analytical work done. Pie charts, graphs. Cash created over his tenure, cash he got, cash he allegedly embezzled. Because ultimately this documentary is story telling, often times in a strange format, with lots of valuable interviews, but virtually no analysis or research.

This is about greed, I wish it had been quantified more.

Missing from this documentary is, after all the interviews with the grieving family and employees: is Carlos Ghosn guilty or not? The family, a few ex employees, and some of the journalists, focus on their view of the harshness of Japanese legal system. But they never really say that Ghosn was innocent of the charges. My takeaway is that he definitely did something wrong and that ego and greed got the better of him.

The producers threw in a few token interviews with Nissan and Japanese government officials but if I did not know better, I'd say this Netflix piece was funded by the "Carlos Ghosn got a raw deal" foundation.

It is an extraordinary story. A CEO who has been arrested and charged but not yet convicted of embezzlement, smuggles himself out of Japan, via a corporate jet, by hiding in a big box. Its stuff out of a novel.

It is a well-made documentary but given most documentaries made today are pretty good anyway, to be exceptional it needs to give the viewer as many facts and let them decide on the conclusions. The problem with this film is that I found it wanting in facts.

We are told the rot set in when Ghosn was informed of 3 employees at Renault who leaked trade secrets on electric cars to the Chinese. So, Ghosn sacked them. Only then it was divulged the 3 employees were innocent and the whole thing was made up. People were questioning Ghosn's integrity. The way I saw it - who was the dude who made up the lies? Why was not the investigation about the source of the lie? Was Ghosn part of the conspiracy? Where was the evidence to support this if that was the case? The documentary had fewer answers than we needed. It was all up in the air with all the wrong question asked.

Ghosn than got in hot water because of his high salary (and a very lavish party he threw), but again, did he break the law? It may not be ethical but what he was doing was not illegal. So jealously plays a large part in his downfall. Ofcourse, the people seeing green could not get over the fact they were still in a job because of Ghosn, not inspite of him. This was the man who turned around a huge loss-making company into a profitable one. The fact he did it twice, for Renault and Nissan, says a lot about Ghosn business prowess and intelligence. Then again, given we are talking about the French and Japanese psyche, that could go in some way to explain why he was hated. Being of Arab origin, he just wasn't one of "us". To its credit the documentary address this.

The biggest issue I had was the lack of evidence presented about Ghosn's presumed embezzlement or possible tax avoidance. No facts were supplied. We were just told the Renault business set up numerous subsidiary companies, but we are also told other car manufactures do the same, so I am not sure why this was a big deal then? It was through these subsidiaries that Ghosn accumulated wealth, but no details were supplied on how the alleged embezzlement operated, how much was siphoned and who else was implicated?

I came away knowing less about Ghosn's charges than I did going into it. The documentary slants on the side of presumed innocence which given the absolute lack of evidence against the man, is the only position to take.

The only fact I came away with is the 99% conviction rate of people arrested in Japan and that goes to explain why Ghosn fled.

Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn" is an investigative feature-length documentary directed by Lucy Blakstad in 2022. It follows the rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn, a businessman in the car industry straddling 2 cultures. The film tracks the rise of Ghosn, a General Manager at French car manufacturer Renault in the late 90's as he takes control of Nissan in Japan and begins to take a firm grip over both companies. But when his business practices came into question, he was jailed in Japan while the scrutiny of his business practices raged in his absence. Whilst on parole, he and his associates plot to get him out of Japan, and intrigue ensues.

This film is an interesting deep dive into one of the more intriguing cases in modern times of a business leader who, once the golden child, had a phenomenal fall from grace. While online pundits applaud and worship and applaud Elon Musk and other car industry leaders as untouchable bastions of commercial enterprise, this film paints a more realistic picture of the life of a corporate leader who flew a little too close to the sun.

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