(Bloomberg) -- The graffiti on a wall opposite Carlos Ghosn’s onetime mansion in Lebanon says much about the country the fugitive former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA has chosen as his home again. Scrawled in Arabic is a single word: “Revolution.”
The $8 million house on Rue Du Liban is in one of Beirut’s poshest neighborhoods, and near a major center of the monthslong anti-corruption protests that toppled the government amid a severe economic slowdown. The mansion itself is registered to Nissan -- the automaker that Japanese officials accuse him of looting through excessive unreported pay and extravagances.
The country that Ghosn -- born in Brazil to Lebanese parents -- last left is barely recognizable. While the automotive tycoon was hailed in Lebanon as a national hero when he was arrested a year ago in Japan, he arrives now as a 65-year-old fugitive amid a popular revolt taking aim at the political elites and their wealthy allies -- and as a poster boy for conspicuous consumption.
“Actual political refugees usually escape to Sweden. Refugees who are accused of corruption by the millions and embezzlement of funds and dishonesty, where do they escape to? Lebanon,” Lucien Bourjeily, a filmmaker and an activist, said on his Twitter account.
While television stations collect food, medicine and clothes for the poor, “Ghosn arrives in an invisible hat in exchange for many dollars,” media figure Christine Habib writes on her Twitter account. “The question is: Will some of the increasing number of needy people get some of the dollars? The answer is no.”
“Eat the rich” was just one of the slogans spouted during nationwide protests in October after the government raised fees for calls on Whatsapp, the application widely used as an alternative to expensive mobile lines. Protesters accuse politicians of lining their pockets, pillaging state coffers and neglecting basic living conditions. As the Lebanese suffer from power rationing and water shortages, the government spends on public-sector salaries and servicing debt the World Bank pegs at about 150% of gross domestic product.
The central bank and local lenders are rationing dollars, pushing up demand for the foreign currency and creating a black market rate for the local one. Banks have also imposed limits on dollar withdrawals and banned transfers abroad. The nation of about 6.8 million people is staring at a current-account deficit equivalent to 25% of its gross domestic product through 2024, or some $16 billion a year, according to International Monetary Fund statistics cited by Bloomberg Economics. In 2020 alone, Lebanon has debt obligations it needs to either repay or roll over totaling $2.5 billion.
Jokes abound on social media that Ghosn hopefully returned with some much-needed dollars as others speculate whether he could live on a mere $200 a week, the withdrawal limit set by some local banks.
Despite the current economic turmoil, there is still a soft spot among many in Lebanon for Ghosn, who co-founded a local winery, sits on the board of Saradar Bank, and has proclaimed his innocence of the charges in Tokyo. Upon his arrest, billboards sprung across the country with a closeup of his face atop a line that read: “We are all Carlos Ghosn.”
“I was happy to hear that he arrived in Lebanon,” said Rola, a 45-year-old secretary at a Beirut business who didn’t give her last name. “I’m still proud of him despite everything that had happened.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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