#Japan charges American father-son duo in Carlos Ghosn escape

Japanese prosecutors on Monday charged two American men with helping former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn in his dramatic escape from Tokyo.

Tokyo district prosecutors say ex-Green Beret Michael Taylor and his son, Peter, helped Ghosn avoid punishment by fleeing to Beirut in December 2019 while he was out on bail for alleged financial crimes.

Authorities want to keep the Taylors locked up while they await trial over concerns that they could flee themselves or try to conceal evidence.

The men face up to three years behind bars and steep odds of winning at trial in Japan, where the conviction rate is 99 percent.

Prosecutors have been questioning the Taylors since they were extradited from the US to Japan in early March. They’ve been detained in the same Tokyo lockup where Ghosn was held before his blockbuster escape.

“We continue to be grateful to the US authorities for their cooperation and hope to proceed with the trial,” Hiroshi Yamamoto, deputy chief prosecutor in Tokyo, said Monday.

The Taylors’ attorneys spent roughly nine months unsuccessfully fighting the US government’s efforts to hand them over to Japanese authorities after they were arrested last May.

The lawyers argued that helping Ghosn jump bail was not actually a crime in Japan and that the father-son duo could face “mental and physical torture,” claims the feds rejected.

A lawyer for the Taylors in the US did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Authorities say Michael Taylor, a private security specialist, and Peter Taylor were paid at least $1.3 million for helping ferry Ghosn out of Japan in a concert equipment box.

American prosecutors have called the plot “one of the most brazen and well-orchestrated escape acts in recent history, involving a dizzying array of hotel meetups, bullet train travel, fake personas, and the chartering of a private jet.”

Ghosn fled while facing Japanese charges for allegedly under-reporting $80 million in compensation earnings and siphoning off company cash for his own use. He has denied the allegations and remains in Lebanon, which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.

With Post wires