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Feds say Americans' bid to avoid extradition in Ghosn escape is 'flawed'

BOSTON — U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday said a former Green Beret and his son, wanted by Japan for helping former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn flee the country, were advancing a "flawed" interpretation of Japanese law to fight their extradition. Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, were arrested in Massachusetts last month at Japan's request for allegedly smuggling Ghosn out of the country on Dec. 29, 2019, in a box while he was out on bail awaiting trial on financial charges. Ghosn fled to Lebanon, his childhood home, after being charged with engaging in financial wrongdoing, including by understating his compensation in Nissan's financial statements. He denies wrongdoing. Lawyers for the Taylors in a motion last week asked a federal judge in Boston to quash the provisional warrants issued in May for their arrests, arguing that "bail jumping" is not a crime in Japan. Defense lawyers argued that helping someone jump bail was also not a crime. While Japan issued arrest warrants for the Taylors in January, the lawyers said the crime stated in the warrants is an immigration offense and a non-extraditable misdemeanor. But U.S. prosecutors in a brief filed on Tuesday said it would be "unprecedented" for the extradition case at this junction to be tossed based on a "flawed interpretation of Japanese law and a mischaracterization of the facts." While Japan has not yet formally sought their extradition, the country has confirmed that Taylors' conduct constitutes a felony, U.S. prosecutors said. "The purported loophole through which the Taylors seek to evade justice simply does not exist," U.S. prosecutors wrote. Prosecutors added that neither Taylor, including Michael, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and private security specialist, should be released from jail as they are flight risks. Abbe Lowell, the Taylors' lawyer, said he was reviewing the filing. Related Video: Government/Legal Mitsubishi Nissan Renault Carlos Ghosn

NISMO confirms hotter GT-R, return to Le Mans and more performance models [w/videos]

Nissan has made three announcements, all of which intend to sharpen the global significance and sales of its NISMO performance arm. Calling it "a new era for NISMO as its global performance car and motorsports brand," Carlos Ghosn cut the ribbon on the new, larger, nicer NISMO headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. For the first time since the division was founded in 1984, all of its employees are located in one place that was dubbed "a hothouse of passion and performance." Sign us up.
There, the team will start overhauling Nissan's entire range with NISMO models. The Juke NISMO is right around the corner for the US market, the second generation of the 370Z NISMO is coming for 2014, the first GT-R NISMO is being developed, and after that will come "a range of affordable performance Nissan models from small cars to flagship sports cars" - a new model every year. The expanded product line will mean that markets that haven't had access to NISMO's works will finally be able to buy them.
The last big news is that from now on NISMO will manage every one of Nissan's global motorsports programs, and its largest initiative will be prepping an entry for Le Mans in 2014. While Nissan has left the DeltaWing project, it hasn't walked away from experimental racers: the brand aims to have "a pioneering Nissan race car showcasing electric technology" ready in 15 months that shows "a new approach to innovation and excitement."

Nissan GT-R LM hobbled by 'very minor' issue during Sebring test

We're always going to have a soft spot for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It marks the start of the endurance racing season, after all. But it's the endurance racing circus' three-hour drive south for the annual to-do at Sebring International Raceway that really sets our hearts aflutter. That's because Sebring is generally used by the biggest teams as a tune-up for June's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Floridian race might only be half as long, but the sheer brutality of the racing surface makes it a great test of a racer's durability, hence why it's a popular stop on the way to France. As it turns out, it was the track's roughness that was the reason Nissan decided to piggyback on one of Audi's tests at the south Florida circuit, Autosport reports. But an issue "to do with the engine mounting" on the front-engined GT-R LM racer sidelined the team. "It was actually a very minor thing, but we just don't have a spare here," Technical Director Ben Bowlby told Autosport. "We've spent a lot of time at Austin, which is very smooth, so we wanted to come to a particularly harsh environment like Sebring." While it seems rather silly to test somewhere in an attempt to "accelerate the durability cycle" without packing a full complement of spares, the rough surface of Sebring has a tendency to wreak havoc with even the most reliable of parts. Nissan did manage to run a total of 68 laps over the course of two days, with drivers Marc Gene and Olivier Pla at the wheel. At present, Nissan won't be running the GT-R LM in the actual 12 Hours of Sebring – it's first race outing will instead be at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, running next month. Related Video: