London (CNN Business) Carlos Ghosn was once feted in Japan as a titan of the auto industry, the charismatic boss of emblematic automakers Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. If he wasn't one of the country's most recognizable faces then, he certainly became one when he was spectacularly fired after being arrested in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct.

The terms of his 1.5 billion yen bail (that's $13.8 million) required that he remain in Japan in advance of his trial, set for 2020. Deemed a flight risk, Ghosn's three passports were confiscated, held by his defense team in order that he could not leave the country. Even then, he was placed under strict surveillance and he was subject to restrictions on his use of phones and computers.

If he couldn't leave his Tokyo apartment to buy a carton of milk without someone knowing about it, how on earth did he just manage to flee the country?

Carlos Ghosn at the New York International Auto Show in 2016.

In the absence of hard facts, there has been plenty of speculation. Among the more outlandish theories to be raised in Lebanese media was that he was smuggled out in a box designed for musical instruments, after a private performance at his home by a Gregorian music ensemble.

Or, were the circumstances of his escape more prosaic, and did he give Japan the slip with the aid of a fake passport, as the French news journal Les Echos reported? (One of the three passports held by Ghosn was French.)

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