Carlos Ghosn joins list of thrilling escapes by finance fugitives
Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn became the latest high-profile financial fugitive to make a cinematic escape from law-enforcement authorities this week.
Mercenaries posing as musicians reportedly helped Ghosn flee financial crimes charges in Japan by dragging him out of the country in a musical instrument case, his first step on the way to Lebanon.
But previous business bigwigs have used similarly dramatic means to get out of dodge. One staged his death while others fled for foreign countries only to return and face the music later.
SAM ISRAEL
Instead of reporting to prison for a 20-year sentence, hedge-fund crook Sam Israel III faked his own suicide and took off in an RV for nearly a month with help from his girlfriend.
Israel vanished on June 9, 2008 after writing “Suicide is painless” on the hood of his car and pretending to jump off the Hudson Valley’s Bear Mountain Bridge. He finally surrendered in Massachusetts on July 2 after a manhunt that landed him on “America’s Most Wanted.”
The stunt got Israel two years in prison on top of his original sentence for bilking $450 million from investors at his Bayou Group. He’s currently at a low-security federal lockup in North Carolina. The girlfriend, Debra Ryan, got three years of probation for aiding his escape.
JHO LOW
Malaysian financier Jho Low is the figurehead of the massive 1MDB scandal — but authorities can’t get ahold of him.
Low has been on the lam as he faces charges in the US and Malaysia for his alleged role in the diversion of at least $4.5 billion from the Malaysian state development fund.
Malaysian cops in September said they found Lho in an unnamed country. But the nation’s police chief reportedly complained last week that “dishonest” foreign authorities were stonewalling efforts to apprehend him.
The Malaysian police have also alleged that Low has tried to buy real estate in Cyprus under a different name. Low has denied wrongdoing in the 1MDB case.
JULIAN TZOLOV
Former Credit Suisse broker Julian Tzolov fled his Fifth Avenue apartment for southern Spain in May 2009 in an attempt to escape his fraud and conspiracy trial. The international manhunt ended about two months later when authorities acting on a tip found him in Marbella with fake identification in his wallet.
Tzolov toured the Malaga province and hunted for luxury real estate while on the lam, sometimes under the alias of Ivan Stefanov Ivanov, The Post reported at the time.
Tzolov was in his native Bulgaria in 2008 when the feds accused him and fellow broker Eric Butler of putting investors’ cash into mortgage securities without them knowing. He eventually pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with the billion-dollar scheme.
JACOB ‘KOBI’ ALEXANDER
Israeli tech mogul Jacob “Kobi” Alexander ran off to Namibia in 2006 after the feds charged him in a stock-options scandal at Comverse Technology, the voicemail software company he led as chief executive.
Alexander lived it up in the South African nation, shacking up on the grounds of a country club in a luxe townhouse near a private airstrip and promising millions of dollars to school kids and housing there, CNBC has reported.
But he was finally extradited in 2016 to face charges that he enriched himself by backdating stock options. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison in February 2017 and released last year.
TOMO RAZMILOVIC
Tomo Razmilovic was supposed to return to the US from London after the feds indicted him for his role in a $200 million securities fraud at Symbol Technologies, the Long Island company where he was CEO.
But the Croatian-born ex-exec actually found his way to an oceanside home in Sweden, where he has citizenship.
Razmilovic demanded an apology when a producer for NBC tracked him down there several years ago even though American authorities are still hunting him. The US Postal Inspection Service is offering a reward up to $100,000 for information leading to his capture.
“I wish that someone sensible would step up and say, would tell me they are sorry for all that I’ve been through,” Razmilovic told the producer in 2013.
With Post wires