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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Thursday 24 augusT 2023

Business tycoon Carlos Ghosn is subject of new Apple TV+ series

By MARK KENNEDY which critics say amounts to
AP Entertainment Writer “hostage justice,” allowing
NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos suspects to be questioned
Ghosn, the former rock star for days without a lawyer
businessman who fell from present while they are kept
grace and fled authorities in solitary confinement in
smuggled in a music instru- a small, spartan cell. The
ment box, is getting what conviction rate of over 99%
his dramatic story deserves has raised questions over
a multi-part documentary forced confessions.
series. The case against Ghosn
“Wanted: The Escape of centers on elaborate cal-
Carlos Ghosn” is the juicy culations to compensate
real tale of how the auto him after retirement for a
executive went from at- pay cut he took beginning
tending red carpets as the in 2009, when disclosure of
head of both Nissan and big executive pay became
Renault to fleeing to Leba- a legal requirement in Ja-
non with the help of a for- pan.
mer Green Beret. Ghosn argues the case
“The Carlos Ghosn story is against him was concoct-
unbelievable in the sense ed in a power struggle with-
that it’s a Shakespearean in Nissan’s boardroom and
tragedy in which we have Former Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn speaks during an interview in Beirut, Lebanon on June 23, the series does show a con-
an archetypal tragic hero 2023. Associated Press spiracy by Nissan officials to
who everybody wants to get rid of Ghosn because
root for but knows the train my; Takashi Yamashita, for- Ghosn to talk frankly was a businessman, and the es- they feared a merger with
crash is coming,” said Sean mer Japanese minister of huge thing and I think that cape is thrilling,” said Jones. Renault.
McLain, a consulting pro- justice; and Hiroto Saikawa, the series would have been “But then when I spent the “He was wronged and yet
ducer on the Apple TV+ se- former Nissan CEO. a struggle to make without time reading up about it, it these allegations look very
ries and Wall Street Journal Most crucially, director that.” did feel rich and the kind bad,” said Jones.
reporter. James Jones went to Leb- Many viewers may tune of thing that’s quite satisfy- “And by hiding out in Leb-
The four-part series, which anon and sat down with in because of the brazen ing to really get your teeth anon, he’s not helping
starts Friday, takes a wider Ghosn and his wife, Carole, way Ghosn left Japan in into.” the appearance of inno-
lens to Ghosn’s story, trac- on camera. Jones got the 2019 after being accused The Brazilian-born Ghosn cence.”
ing the childhood and rise job before he’d secured of financial improprieties. took refuge in Lebanon, his Ghosn may have escaped
of the auto executive which access to the couple but He turned to Mike Taylor, ancestral homeland, which but not everyone who
Time magazine once put knew he had to have them a former Green Beret, who has no extradition treaty helped him did the same.
ahead of Bill Gates among participate. hid the executive in a large with Japan. He denied Taylor was sentenced to
the 15 most influential glob- “You need to hear from music instrument box with the financial improprieties two years in prison, while
al business executives. the people in the room. breathing holes drilled in charges and said Japan’s his son, Peter, was sen-
Voices included are Louis You can’t just have pundits and got him out on a pri- justice system was unfair. tenced to one year and
Schweitzer, former CEO commentating on what vate jet. “I did not escape justice. eight months for his part.
of Renault; Andy Palmer, happened or kind of re- “My initial reaction was like, I fled injustice,” he said at They claim in the series that
former COO of Nissan; Ar- hashing the story second- ‘Is there enough for four the time. Ghosn never paid them
naud Montebourg, former hand,” Jones says. “For me, parts?’ I know he’s an inter- The series also investigates for their work helping him
French minister of econo- getting Carlos and Carole esting guy who is a brilliant Japan’s legal system, escape.q

Maxine Hong Kingston honored by Ishmael Reed’s Before

Columbus Foundation

NEW YORK (AP) — Max- Woman Warrior,” received Stories.”
ine Hong Kingston, Darryl a lifetime achievement Other winners included Ed-
Pinckney and the late bell prize. Pinckney was cited gar Gomez’s memoir “High
hooks were among the for his memoir “Come Back Risk Homosexual”; Aidan
authors honored this year in September,” and hooks, Levy’s biography of jazz
by the Before Columbus who died in 2021, was giv- great Sonny Rollins, “Saxo-
Foundation, a nonprofit co- en a special award for criti- phone Colossus”; Kelly Ly-
founded by Ishmael Reed cism. tle Hernández’s nonfiction
that celebrates multicultur- On Tuesday, the foun- “Bad Mexicans: Race, Em-
al literature. dation also announced pire, and Revolution in the
Established in 1976, the awards for Ayanna Lloyd Borderlands”; and Javier
Before Columbus Founda- Banwo’s novel “When We Zamora’s “Solito: A Mem-
tion each year presents Were Birds,” Leila Mottley’s oir.”
American Book Awards “Nightcrawling: A Novel,” Previous recipients of Amer-
to both fiction and nonfic- Everett Hoagland’s poetry ican Book Awards include Author Maxine Hong Kingston appears in the backyard of her
tion writers. Kingston, best collection “The Ways” and Gayl Jones, Ayah Akhtar Oakland, Calif. home on April 10, 2001.
known for her memoir “The Bojan Louis’ “Sinking Bell: and Ocean Vuong.q Associated Press