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Kamis, 30 Januari 2020

Carlos Ghosn escape: Japan issues arrest warrants for ex-U.S. soldier, two others - NBC News

TOKYO — Japanese authorities on Thursday issued arrest warrants for a former U.S. special forces soldier and two other men on suspicion of smuggling former Nissan Motor Co boss Carlos Ghosn out of Japan.

Warrants were issued for former U.S. Green Beret Michael Taylor and two other men, George-Antoine Zayek and Peter Taylor, prosecutors said in a statement. A warrant was also issued for Ghosn for illegally leaving the country, prosecutors said.

Ghosn fled to Lebanon, his childhood home, at the end of last year, while he was awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies.

Jan. 12, 202003:43

The arrest warrants come days after prosecutors searched the Tokyo office of Ghosn's former lawyer.

Lebanon and Japan have about 40 days to decide whether Ghosn will be extradited to Japan or stand trial in Lebanon, Reuters reported last week.

The two countries have no extradition treaty and Lebanon does not typically hand over its nationals. Ghosn's legal team is hoping to hold the trial in Lebanon, where the former auto executive has deep ties and hopes to clear his name.

Ghosn has struck out at what he has called Japan's unjust judicial system and said the alternative to fleeing would have been to spend the rest of his life languishing in Tokyo without a fair trial.

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2020-01-30 11:36:00Z
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Japan Issues Arrest Warrants for Three Men Suspected of Helping Ghosn Escape - The Wall Street Journal

Carlos Ghosn in Beirut on Jan. 8. Photo: mohamed azakir/Reuters

Peter Landers

The Wall Street Journal

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@LandersWSJ
Peter.Landers@wsj.com

Updated Jan. 30, 2020 4:47 am ET

TOKYO—A Japanese court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for three Americans who prosecutors said were suspected of helping former Nissan Motor Co. NSANY -0.64% Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape Japan in late December by hiding inside luggage.

Tokyo prosecutors said former Green Beret Michael Taylor, 59, and his son Peter Taylor, 26, as well as Lebanese-born U.S. citizen George Zayek, 60, were suspected of violating Japan’s immigration-control laws. The three didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, prosecutors confirmed the widely reported outlines of Mr. Ghosn’s daring escape, saying he hid in a piece of luggage and boarded a private jet that departed Kansai International Airport in Osaka at about 11 p.m. on Dec. 29. Tokyo deputy chief prosecutor Takahiro Saito also described for the first time what he said was the central role played by the younger Mr. Taylor.

Carlos Ghosn Details Why He Escaped Japan

Former automotive executive Carlos Ghosn said he “fled injustice” in Japan. WSJ’s Chip Cummins explains what a recent crowded press conference in Beirut tells us about Mr. Ghosn’s next steps. Photo: Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press

Mr. Saito said Peter Taylor came to Japan in the summer of 2019 and met Mr. Ghosn four times at the office of Mr. Ghosn’s Japanese lawyer in Tokyo. Peter Taylor and Mr. Ghosn met again on Dec. 6 and Dec. 28, the day before Mr. Ghosn’s escape, according to the prosecutor, who declined to give the location of those meetings. He said authorities believed the meetings were to plan an escape.

Mr. Saito said he believed Mr. Taylor handed Mr. Ghosn a key to a Tokyo hotel room at the Dec. 28 meeting. On the afternoon of the next day, Mr. Ghosn went to the hotel from his Tokyo house and let himself into a room reserved by Mr. Taylor, the prosecutor said. Mr. Ghosn changed his clothes at the hotel before heading to Osaka, prosecutors said.

Michael Taylor and Mr. Zayek accompanied Mr. Ghosn to the Kansai airport and onto the private jet, Mr. Saito said, confirming earlier reports in The Wall Street Journal. He didn’t say what Peter Taylor did after helping Mr. Ghosn prepare for the journey, but a Japanese magazine called Friday said an American in his 20s resembling Peter Taylor took a taxi to Tokyo’s Narita Airport from the Tokyo hotel and left the country.

At the Kansai airport, Mr. Ghosn sneaked onto the private jet by hiding inside luggage, evading the immigration officers who normally check those departing the country, and flew to Turkey en route to Lebanon, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors didn’t specify the type of luggage in which Mr. Ghosn hid, but The Wall Street Journal has reported it was a black box normally used to carry musical equipment.

Mr. Ghosn was living in Tokyo awaiting trial on financial charges before his escape. After spending 130 days in jail over two separate stints, he was freed on bail in April 2019. He was permitted to travel within Japan but was barred by the Tokyo District Court from leaving the country.

Mr. Saito, the prosecutor, said a raid Wednesday on the office of former Ghosn lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, in which prosecutors broke open drawers to view documents, was aimed at gathering evidence against Peter Taylor.

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Mr. Ghosn has said he is innocent of the charges against him. Citing his lengthy detention after his arrest and Japan’s conviction rate of more than 99% for people charged with a crime, he has said he couldn’t get a fair trial in Japan and fled injustice. Another former lawyer for Mr. Ghosn, Takashi Takano, has said he understands why Mr. Ghosn chose to flee given what he described as the Japanese justice system’s bias in favor of prosecutors.

Mr. Saito said people who expressed such views were spreading lies. He said his office, which typically doesn’t announce the issuance of arrest warrants, made an exception in the case of the alleged Ghosn collaborators to make clear its view that the escape was a crime and Mr. Ghosn should have stayed in Japan to face trial.

—Chieko Tsuneoka contributed to this article.

Write to Peter Landers at peter.landers@wsj.com

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2020-01-30 09:47:00Z
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Japan issues arrest warrants for ex-U.S. soldier, two others for Ghosn escape - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn gestures during a news conference at the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut, Lebanon January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese authorities on Thursday issued arrest warrants for a former U.S. special forces soldier and two other men on suspicion of smuggling former Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) boss Carlos Ghosn out of Japan.

The arrest warrants come days after prosecutors searched the Tokyo office of Ghosn’s former lawyer.

Lebanon and Japan have about 40 days to decide whether Ghosn will be extradited to Japan or stand trial in Lebanon, Reuters reported last week.

The two countries have no extradition treaty and Lebanon does not typically hand over its nationals. Ghosn’s legal team is hoping to hold the trial in Lebanon, where the former auto executive has deep ties and hopes to clear his name.

Ghosn has struck out at what he has called Japan’s unjust judicial system and said the alternative to fleeing would have been to spend the rest of his life languishing in Tokyo without a fair trial.

Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Junko Fujita; Editing by David Dolan, Christian Schmollinger and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-01-30 05:33:00Z
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Rabu, 29 Januari 2020

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to sell newspaper business for $140 million - CNBC

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman and chief executive officer, tosses a newspaper as he tours the exhibition floor during the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is leaving the newspaper business and selling its operations to publisher Lee Enterprises for $140 million in cash.

The deal includes Berkshire Hathaway Media Group and The Buffalo News, a paper covering western New York and owned as a separate entity by Berkshire.

Lee said the purchase of Berkshire's newspaper assets will "add significant size and scale" to its operations, lift its portfolio of daily newspapers to 81 from 50 and nearly double its audience.

In a statement released with Lee's announcement, Buffett said: "My partner Charlie Munger and I have known and admired the Lee organization for over 40 years. They have delivered exceptional performance managing BH Media's newspapers and continue to outpace the industry in digital market share and revenue."

"We had zero interest in selling the group to anyone else for one simple reason: We believe that Lee is best positioned to manage through the industry's challenges," he added.

Lee said the acquisition will have an immediate boost to profitability and will cut its leverage ratio — a measure of a business's debt as part of its total capital — before any cost and revenue synergies.

The deal will include local news organizations such as the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska and the Tulsa World in Oklahoma. Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises already owns outlets such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota.

"This highly collaborative relationship has driven digital and subscription revenue growth, margin expansion and continued innovation," Lee CEO Kevin Mowbray said in a release.

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2020-01-29 13:39:00Z
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Boeing posts first annual loss in 22 years because of the 737 Max crisis - CNN

The company reported a net loss of $636 million last year, compared to a $10.5 billion profit it made in 2018.

But its core commercial aircraft operation lost $6.7 billion last year, almost entirely because of Boeing's continued problems with the 737 Max. Revenue for the year plunged 24% because Boeing stopped deliveries of the 737 Max in March.

Boeing said it will pay an additional $2.6 billion to airline customers to compensate them for the grounding, which followed two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.

"We recognize we have a lot of work to do," said Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun in a statement. "We are focused on returning the 737 Max to service safely and restoring the long-standing trust that the Boeing brand represents with the flying public. Fortunately, the strength of our overall Boeing portfolio of businesses provides the financial liquidity to follow a thorough and disciplined recovery process."

But the grounding will cost more than the amount Boeing owes airlines. The cost of producing the jet increased by $2.6 billion during 2019. Boeing had continued to build the Max throughout the year despite not being able to complete the deliveries and get most of the money for the plane from airline customers. It has about 400 completed jets parked in Washington state and Texas awaiting delivery.

Boeing also expects a cost increase of $4 billion in 2020 because of at temporarily shutdown of production earlier this month. Calhoun said last week it expects to restart the line in two or three months even without final approval for the plane to fly again.

All told the 737 Max crisis has cost Boeing more than $17 billion.

Boeing (BA) said last week it did not expect the plane will be approved to fly again until the middle of this year, although the Federal Aviation Administration subsequently said its approval could come before that time. The airlines have been adjusting their schedules, with United Airlines (UAL) executives saying last week that they don't expect to be able to use the plane during the upcoming summer travel season.

Although the 737 Max crisis is Boeing's biggest problem, other issues are dogging the company.

Slides it prepared for an investor call later Wednesday show it plans to record a charge for the Starliner space capsule it is developing for NASA. Starliner will need an additional uncrewed mission after it failed to reach the International Space Station as planned on its most recent flight. The amount of the charge was not indicated.

It also said that global trade tension is putting pressure on the widebody commercial jet market, Boeing's most profitable product. And it said the slowdown in production of the 787 Dreamliner widebody will stretch through at least 2023.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Boeing's core loss.

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2020-01-29 13:32:00Z
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Boeing posts first loss in 22 years because of the 737 Max crisis - CNN

The company reported a net loss of $636 million last year, compared to a $10.5 billion profit it made in 2018.

Boeing said it will pay an additional $2.6 billion to airline customers to compensate them for the grounding, which followed two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.

All told the 737 Max crisis has cost Boeing more than $17 billion.

Although the 737 Max crisis is Boeing's biggest problem, other issues are dogging the company.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Boeing's core loss.

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Boeing posts first annual loss in more than two decades as 737 Max crisis continues - CNBC

Boeing on Wednesday reported its first annual loss in more than two decades as costs from the 737 Max crisis rise sharply.

Boeing said it lost $636 million in 2019, marking the first annual loss since 1997. As a comparison, Boeing had posted a profit of $10.46 billion in 2018.

Boeing reported a loss of $2.33 per share for the fourth quarter of last year. Revenue in the last three months of the year dropped 37% to $17.91 billion compared with $28.34 billion in the year-earlier period.

Boeing's new CEO Dave Calhoun will speak to CNBC at 8 a.m. ET to discuss the company's results.

Boeing is struggling through a crisis stemming from two crashes of its 737 Max that killed all 346 people aboard the flights. The manufacturer this month suspended production of the planes, which regulators grounded in March after the second of the two fatal flights.

The debacle's costs to Boeing are rising to more than $18 billion, the company said, roughly double what it outlined in the previous quarter. That amount includes an additional $2.6 billion pretax charge to compensate airlines and other 737 Max customers because of the grounding. Boeing had taken a $5.6 billion pretax charge in the second quarter to compensate its customers.

The company recently reported its worst annual sales figures in decades and it handed the crown to the world's biggest aircraft manufacturer to its rival Airbus.

Calhoun, who took the reins this month, is set to face investors on his first earnings call at the helm of the company and is expected to detail the company's recovery plan and what it will cost. Boeing last week said it expects regulators to sign off on the planes mid-year, but the FAA has said it could come before that.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

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2020-01-29 12:07:00Z
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