Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, Facebook digs in its heels on political ads and the next big streaming service.

But first, Carlos Gown unboxed. So lots of big-name CEOs are known to have helped their companies escape from dire situations.

But none has physically had to smuggle themselves out of a country in order to avoid local authorities.

Well, until last month, when former Nissan Chairman Carlos Gohn escaped Japan, where he'd been arrested

in late 2018 for alleged financial misconduct, including under reporting of compensation

and personal use of company assets, basically commingling personal and company funds.

Now, Gown, who at the time was under house arrest and had his passports confiscated, stuffed

himself into a box with a bunch of air holes on the bottom, which associates then secretly

got onto a private jet in Osaka, which then flew to Gown's native Lebanon, which does

not have an extradition treaty with Japan.

Gone then huddled for over a week with family before publicly emerging yesterday,

an press conference that went on for over two hours. Now, beyond the headline making tone-deaf

comparison of his situation to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gown also said this.

I've been into many missions impossible. When I went in Japan in 1999, everybody told me,

you know, it's impossible. You're not

going to be able to make it. Who are you? You don't speak Japanese. You're coming from France.

You're coming from Rono. Nobody knows that. And you know the story. I don't consider that now

I'm in a situation where I cannot do anything. I can do a lot. And I'm going to clear my name. Now, the bottom line here is that Gohn is an international fugitive businessman living in

plain sight.

He also doesn't seem like the sort who wants to retire to the Lebanese countryside anytime soon,

which means that his escape story is far from over.

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