Jailed: Father and son get two years for helping Carlos Ghosn flee Japan

An American father and son who helped former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn flee Japan have been jailed after pleading guilty for helping the fugitive escape.

Ghosn was hidden in a box by US Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son Peter, meeting up with the pair at Kansai Airport in December 2019, before returning to his birthplace of Lebanon which does not have an extradition agreement with Japan.

Michael Taylor was sentenced to two years in prison while Peter Taylor will face 20 months behind bars, having both submitted a guilty plea last month after being extradited from the US in March to face the charges.

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Ghosn was the head of Nissan for over 15 years before he was arrested

Ghosn had been the CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance since 2001 and was initially arrested in November 2018 for "significant acts of misconduct", understating his income to Japanese authorities by around $110 million over a five year period, as well as using company assets for personal use.

Placed in a detention centre for 108 days, the Brazillian-born, Lebanon-raised Frenchman was moved to house arrest in March 2019 where he remained until his December 29 escape, leaving his apartment and taking the bullet train to Kansai Airport, flying on to Lebanon via Turkey.

In early 2020, Ghosn held a press conference in Lebanon, claiming he was “was left with no other choice” than to flee Japan, a country which the ABC says has a 99 per cent criminal conviction rate.

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In his native Lebanon, Ghosn is a free man with no risk of being extradited to Japan

Greg Kelly, another former Nissan executive arrested at the same time as Ghosn, is currently on trial in Japan for falsifying security reports on Ghosn's compensation, facing a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.

To this day, Ghosn is still a wanted criminal in Japan but is a free man in his native Lebanon.