8:32 am, January 29, 2021
An American father and son accused of smuggling former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a box on a private jet have had their extradition approved.
Michael Taylor, 59, and Peter Taylor, 27, were arrested last May in Harvard, Massachusetts, and had been due to be handed over to Japan after the US State Department agreed to the extradition in October.
US District Judge Indira Talwani then put it on hold after their lawyers filed an emergency petition.
But yesterday (Jan 28) she wrote in a ruling that the extradition could move forward.
Lawyers for the men said in court papers that they planned to lodge an appeal, having previously argued that ‘bail jumping’ isn’t a crime in Japan so helping someone evade their bail conditions wasn’t a crime either.
The flight in December 2019 went first to Turkey then Lebanon, where Ghosn has citizenship and which has no extradition treaty with Japan.
Ghosn was facing trial on charges of under-reporting his future income and committing a breach of trust by diverting Nissan money for his personal gain.
He denies the charges and says he fled because he couldn’t expect a fair trial, was subjected to unfair conditions in detention and his bail conditions barred him from meeting his wife.
He says the compensation was never decided on or received, and that the Nissan payments were for legitimate business purposes.
