01x03 - Escape

[bunniefuu]

Breaking news out of Japan.

Carlos Ghosn released
from Tokyo jail for a second time

after posting
four and a half million dollars in bail.

The former Nissan chairman
was jailed twice.

This is just the latest development
in a legal saga:

arrest and a re-arrest
and jail and release,

jailed again, granted bail.

When I was bailed out, I-I was happy.

I... I was just thinking, "My God,"
that I can hold my wife in my arms,

I can see my children.

When he was released,
I couldn't eat, I couldn't shower.

I said I have to be by him.

I ha... You know,
I have to try to go see him.

He needs me. I needed him.

Carlos Ghosn has repeatedly said

that he is innocent
of all of these charges.

But in the car, my lawyer
told me, "I have a bad news for you.

There is a condition from the judge."

I cannot have any contact with Carole.

A-And this was a shock for me.

He was just let out with these conditions

that he's not allowed to speak
to his wife, which is extraordinary.

They said no phone calls, no letters.

If you communicate,
Carlos goes back to jail.

They realized how much
we depended on each other.

They figured out that he got
a lot of strength from me,

They wanted to break him through me.

It was their... You know,
the next way of breaking him.

I asked my lawyer, "I have four charges.

Is the prosecutor going to treat them
simultaneously?"

And he said, "No,
the trials are gonna be successive."

I said, "My God, this is gonna
take seven years, eight years of trial."

I was 65 years old.

Without my wife, without my children,
it was impossible for me to bear.

I couldn't stand any chance
of a fair trial, so I made a decision.

Okay, so I have to leave.

He couldn't talk to his wife.
He couldn't talk to his lawyers.

He didn't feel he was
gonna get a fair trial.

This story hasn't played out yet.

So, Sherisse,
what is the latest you have

on where things stand legally
for Carlos Ghosn right now?

Legally, he is in a holding pattern.

He must remain in Japan.

He probably has to turn over his passport.

They're saying he would be
surveilled at all times.

When I cover a story like this,
often I'll map out, you know,

what's the next scoop to get?
What's the next thing to watch out for?

So I did that with Ghosn.

And an escape didn't even cross my mind.

It's such a surprise
the Chairman of Nissan,

Carlos Ghosn, has been arrested.

Carlos Ghosn
is one of the most famous,

recognizable people in Japan.

Living in a court-monitored house.

All his calls are logged.

All his meetings are logged.

All his Internet use is logged.

There were a lot of people
following me all the time.

By car, by motorcycle.

Even walking.

I believe my phone was tapped.

I was convinced the apartment was bugged,

but also, you had surveillance trucks
waiting outside

and listening to all the conversation

taking place in the apartment.

I asked my lawyer if this was legal.
They said no.

I said, "Well, it's happening."

I needed to find a way
to get out of this huge trap.

If you stayed in the system,
there was no way out?

I mean... I couldn't
stand any chance of a fair trial.

I was... I was not a legal case.
I was a symbol.

What am I doing here?

What I'm hoping for?

You have to make choices in life,
you know, y-you're not gonna have it all.

Yes, if he left, he was gonna be
labeled as a fugitive,

but...
I'd rather be labeled as a fugitive

than be stuck in Japan
and put in jail and have no freedom.

Do you think there was
something special about your mindset,

having been a CEO,

that made you see that the reward
was so great,

the risk was worth it, and tolerate that,
whereas many people wouldn't?

I cannot talk about other people.

I can tell you that,
well, for me, it was an...

A relatively easy decision to make,

knowing everything I knew at the moment.

But without any help
it was mission: impossible.

Japan only detains those

who are in danger of concealing evidence

or at risk of fleeing.

We didn't put a surveillance camera
inside his home,

but we did install one outside,
aimed at the front door.

Once he left through the front door,
we wouldn't know where he was.

Ghosn's bail money was 1.5 billion yen.

I thought it wasn't enough
to prevent him fleeing.

That's what I believed.

Do you know how the plan came about?

Okay, legally, I'm not allowed
to talk about this,

so I'll say what I can say...

but, you know... Th... Um...

I...

It was a friend who... who told him,

"We could help you escape Japan."

And s-so tell me, who-who's Mike Taylor?

If you need someone
to help you get out of trouble,

the man to call is Mike Taylor.

If he believes in your cause,
he'll fight to the death for you.

To the average person, Mike Taylor was
just a simple high school football coach.

It's high school football.
We gotta keep it in perspective.

But Michael Taylor's no choir boy.

And a multinational force

quickly moved in to consolidate
a cease-fire.

The reality was,
he was a former Green Beret

assigned to the Lebanon conflict.

He has Lebanese roots.

A private investigator.

Was the head of a company
called American International Security,

and he had many contacts
in the Middle East

and in foreign intel services.

He had been involved
in helping several people

get out of situations
they needed to get out of.

We had proposed scenarios
that involved fishing boats,

getting people on a charter,
getting them out seven miles to sea,

and then having the Navy SEALs
pop into a submarine

and putting the individual in there.

He would do anything.

Anything.

I am Michael Taylor,
a former US Special Forces Green Beret,

and the man who rescued Carlos Ghosn.

I was married in Lebanon,

and I've got a lot of connections
with the country of Lebanon,

a lot of friends and family
who are near and dear to my heart.

I met Carole, Carlos's wife.

There's a... a family connection
through my sister-in-law.

They're,
they're first or second cousins.

You know, Lebanon is a small country,
so...

if you're not related to somebody,
you know them.

You know, because
I'm American-Lebanese, I was a fighter.

And I knew there's someone
that I love that's suffering.

Carlos was innocent and, um, mistreated.

She was emotional, obviously.

You're traumatized by this situation.

That's her husband,
that's the love of her life,

and, you know,
she can't even speak to him.

What government would do such a thing?

The Japanese judicial system.

"We'll give you bail.

You're gonna put up $13.8 million,

and... by the way...
If you talk to your wife,

we're gonna revoke your bail
and put you back in solitary confinement."

That was shocking to me.

I think Mike is driven by injustice,

and he knew Carlos's story,
and he found it very unjust,

and he wanted to help out.

I don't know if they knew
of all the successes I've had

rescuing people in the past

or the requests for me
to help people that were kidnapped,

like David Rohde.

David Rohde, the journalist?

Yeah. He was abducted, in Afghanistan.

The New York Times
says that David Rohde

escaped a compound
in the northern region of Pakistan.

He had traveled to Kabul
to work on a book.

He was taken by militants.

When I first heard about Carlos Ghosn

and found out that Japan

actually had a very, very brutal,
torturous judicial system,

clearly that was some
of the motivation that I felt,

you know, sympathy for Carlos.

I never discussed payment with Carlos.

Expenses were... were paid for,
which was normal in any kind of operation.

And afterwards,
as gentlemen and men of honor,

we can talk about, you know,
any remuneration.

My name's Peter Taylor.

I was, implicated
in Carlos Ghosn's escape.

In terms of when I decided
to play a role...

If you wanna call it that...

I was living in Lebanon actually,
at the time.

Ghosn was not allowed contact
with his wife in Lebanon,

so, you know, I had offered

to just kind of bring him,
like, a care package.

I just brought him, you know, DVDs,

some Lebanese food and sweets,
and some of his clothes, et cetera,

and,
we spent a few days in Tokyo together.

Obviously,
it's not a... it's not a short trip.

But I also knew that my father wasn't able
to communicate with Ghosn directly,

so I was one of the people
that was in contact with him.

All I really had to do was just give,
observations.

You know, I wasn't, like, you know,
drafting reports, et cetera, on his surv...

On Ghosn's surveillance,

and there was nothing ill*gal
about meeting Carlos Ghosn in Tokyo.

He enjoyed having visitors.

You know, he was quite isolated.

We talked a lot about Lebanon,
we talked about his case,

and, you know, it wasn't very difficult
to sympathize with Ghosn,

regardless whether you thought
he was guilty or not.

He was essentially living
in a surveillance state.

He was watched everywhere he went.

I wasn't concerned
about the surveillance, no.

I wanna save this person's life,
and that's what I'm gonna do.

And how did the plan come about?

You know, it's a... it's a...

It's a vulnerability assessment
of what it is.

I need to find out
where all the vulnerabilities lie.

I'll go through and see
what's positive, what's negative,

meaning, "What can I use
out of this for our benefit?

And what could possibly go wrong?"

For example,
this one had some exceptional challenges.

If we're gonna take him
to the country of Lebanon,

there's only two ways out:

by air or by sea.

It was in December,
so the seas are very rough,

and I wasn't sure, physically,
he was able to handle that.

So the quickest way, ultimately,
would be by air.

It was probably a couple months
after I had been involved.

I had contact with Carlos.

The first thing is
to establish the communication.

Obviously, I couldn't organize this
through the telephone

that the prosecutor and the judge gave me.

Luckily for me,
there is a black market in Japan.

I paid for another phone with,
a number that cannot be traced.

We knew that the apartment was bugged,

but also they told me,
"If you don't want to be listened to,

you need to make your conversation
in the bathroom with the shower...

and the radio going on."

There's no way anybody's
gonna distinguish anything.

Finally, I'm free to talk.

They told me from the beginning
what was going to happen.

Carlos was excited
about the possibility.

You know, later I spoke to him,
on a telephone,

and yeah, course he was excited.

I was proposed many options.

Because my skin was on the table,
I had to make the call.

He is a very high-profile individual.

Everybody in Japan
knew about him and his case.

So, that in itself
presented more difficulties.

Couldn't go through a commercial airport.

Private airport, just quieter.

And multimillion-dollar private aircrafts

generally don't get
scrutinized that often.

We ended up with private plane.

Hiring a plane,
it's easy if you have the cash.

Because of his high profile,

we've gotta keep him covered
and concealed.

So we used their processes against them.

Their standard operational procedure is
they don't check baggage on the way out.

They check on the way in, not the way out.

That's one of the vulnerabilities.
And they were very regimented about it.

We saw that early on.

I saw that as-as one of
the vulnerabilities

that would... we'd benefit from.

So, I'm gonna put him in a box.

The plan was so brilliant
because it was so simple.

I thought of what they call "music boxes."

I wanted a cover story,
so I decided, you know, we're musicians.

And I found a company
that made boxes for musicians,

stage handling, stage equipment.

So, put him in a box.

I said, "You're crazy."

You know, I've gone undercover

and done a whole bunch
of different things in my life,

but I've never been accused of
being a musician.

And there was another big problem.

People were still following me
all the time.

My helpers,

they told me at a certain
point in time, call the press.

And there was another big problem.

I said, "Are you interested to make
an article about how I'm being followed?"

The day the press came,
the guys did not show up.

Three, four days
after the press disappeared,

the surveillance continued.

Japanese people are organized.

Because they are organized,
they are predictable.

If you call the press,
they're gonna disappear.

At that moment, I knew that
I could create a window to leave

without being traced.

We wanted the whole
governmental apparatus to be relaxed.

So I decided to go right up against
the New Year's break,

when the entire country's on vacation.

And then Carlos... I think it was
probably a day or two before.

I told him where to be and what to do
and, "Everybody's gotta be in unison.

You've got X amount of time.
You're gonna hit that target.

You've got a clock to go by."

How did you rate your chances of success?

I didn't rate them.

I was so motivated by getting out

and changing what my life has been

for the last 13 months,

that frankly,
I didn't care about the percentage.

I just cared about the opportunity.

Did you allow yourself
to think what would happen

- if the gamble didn't pay off?
- Yeah.

I knew it would be bad, very bad.

But frankly, I was... I was ready.

I-I was ready.
I was waiting for this moment.

I was not dreading this moment.
I was waiting for it.

I was ready to take the risk.

There's a saint
in the mountains in Lebanon

and he... You know, he makes miracles.

And I went, and I-I would pray to him.

And... And I would always tell him,
"Please, just let him out."

You know, you have to
have faith in something,

in... when you're in a bad situation,
because faith keeps you going.

December 29th,
I would fly into Osaka, the VIP terminal,

early in the morning on a leased aircraft,

with the boxes that I had custom-made.

I wanted to confirm on the way in
that they check your luggage,

which they did.

They check on the way in, not the way out.

It's no different than
a military operation.

We needed to move quick
and be in and out of Japan that day.

I wheeled the box into my hotel.

Then I jump on the train,
go up to Tokyo to meet Carlos.

Before I left the apartment,
we called journalist again,

and the surveillance disappeared.

I left my apartment at around 2:00 p.m.

I was very tense.

I wanted to be concentrated
on every single step,

because I-I didn't want this to fail

because of a moment of inattention.

I-I acted like they were following,
just to... not to take any risk.

I don't know if,
I would have encouraged him

to do something like that, you know.

It's-It's horrible to think
that he might have got caught.

What would have happened to him?
What would happen to me, you know?

What would... You know,
would I ever see him again?

Would our marriage be over?

They would have put him in jail
and never released him.

The risk he took was enormous.

We met at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo the day
of the 29th, a little after 2:00 p.m.

It was on the ninth floor,
and it was in room 933.

I heard the knock, I opened the door,
and Carlos Ghosn was there.

He definitely looked a bit,
a bit on edge, a bit nervous.

That's when I got a call from my father.
He was arriving in a couple of minutes.

So I went down to the lobby
to pick him up.

I knew that the plan was
just about finished,

but was it happening that day?

I couldn't be sure of that.

I thought maybe he wants to scope things
out personally and be on the ground.

I mean, I could feel it was
kind of the end... ending stages,

but I didn't really know
what the plans were,

and when it was happening, et cetera.

You know, I was almost like a...
Kind of like a glorified errand boy.

When I met Carlos,

I told him we're gonna take a taxi
to the train station in Tokyo.

We're gonna catch a train,
bring him back to Osaka.

It's time to move. Let's go.

In the hotel,
I changed my appearance again.

Natural camouflage is the best camouflage.

It was normal in Japan even pre-pandemic
for everybody to wear masks.

So we're gonna fit in,
everybody's gonna wear a mask.

Everything was timed very precisely.

In the hotel was seven minutes.

And then once we leave the hotel,
find the wild card: a taxi.

Taxi pulled right up to us.
Thankfully, it worked out that way.

Took a taxi and went to the station.

We went in a pretty busy train.

He was clearly apprehensive.

I was concerned
that his anxiety level would be high.

And his anxiety level was high.

Understandably so,
because he's risking his life.

If he gets caught,
he'd be in jail in Japan for a long time.

Well, yeah, I was worried.

Sure, I was worried.

You're afraid if something go wrong.

If somebody recognized me,
this would be the end of the whole thing.

Carlos was wearing
the mask, the sunglasses and a hat.

There was no talking.

They asked me not to open my mouth

and to be extremely discreet,
so that's what I was doing.

Osaka, we went to hotel,
and then, they put me in the box.

The box was just a common stage box

the stage handler would use.

I had to drill holes in the bottom
of the box so he could breathe.

Last thing I wanted was him passing out.

But I had to be careful

so it didn't sacrifice the integrity
of the structure itself.

It wouldn't be too good if,
because I drilled so many breathing holes,

that as they're lifting him,
he fell through the bottom of the box.

And then, 10:00 p.m., I was notified

the cargo crew and the vans were
outside ready to pick us up.

We had requested a 2300 takeoff.

And when it was time to get in the box,

I don't want him going in and out
of the box, maybe get cold feet.

I wanna put him in that box one time,
shut the lid and move out.

Yeah.
I-I didn't believe this is happening.

There was no turning back.

I knew that we needed
an optical illusion to get them thinking

that we were not a threat
or not suspicious.

So I chose a guitar case
on top of the boxes so people think,

when they see a guitar case and
a private jet,

that they must be musicians.

All of this critical path,

I was following through hearing
and sensation what was going on.

I couldn't see anything.
I was in the dark.

But, you know, I could hear
from the noises around me where we were.

We're in the car...

then unloaded inside the terminal.

Any time at the airport was high-risk.

And we arrived late intentionally.

That added to the urgency
of moving us through quicker.

There was security.
There was a Japanese police officer there.

To his left would be
the immigration official.

And then after that,
the manager of the terminal.

The guards... custom guys...
Talking between themselves...

making jokes.

"We're sure you have
a very pretty woman in this box

that you're trying to take
with you out of Japan."

All of a sudden...

What's in the box?

Very valuable equipment.

It can't go through the scanner.

I was dreading this moment,
because they could open the box.

It's over.

"We need to check the box."

That was the number one concern I had.

And things would have got real nasty
real quick.

But, again, their standard
operational procedure is never to do that,

and I didn't suspect they would do it now.

I spent some time to regain my breathing.

I was so concentrated on the noise.

And the most important moment
is when you hear the engine of the plane.

And then you're waiting
for the plane to take off.

The very long wait.

Once the cargo door was shut,

and then the passenger door was shut,
I requested that we depart.

And the Japanese denied that request.

When you're sitting
there waiting, you're thinking the worst.

What's the contingency plan if they say,
"Open the door.

We now need to check the box"?

That's what you're waiting for: a knock.

Or a radio transmission
to their pilot saying, "Shut down.

Open your door, let us on."

I was thinking,
"My God, it's happening.

They have unraveled the whole plan.

I'm gonna die in Japan."

If you want to understand the Ghosn story
and the complexity of Carlos Ghosn...

The man...
You have to start at the beginning

with the secret of Carlos Ghosn's dad.

During Ghosn's entire childhood, um,
his dad is in jail,

and his dad is seen as a criminal.

So Ghosn's dad, Georges,
he has a legitimate currency business,

but on top of that, he's also got
this ill*gal smuggling business

with a priest.

They are essentially smuggling diamonds,

currency across borders
under this priest's cassock.

And so, at some point, Carlos Ghosn's dad
and this priest had a disagreement.

Essentially, it was over some money
and now, Georges, he wants his money back.

What Georges has done, is paid
a local tough guy to scare the priest.

So he picks the priest up
on Easter Sunday,

and they drive towards Syria,

and this local tough guy is basically,
like, waiting for him.

So the car stops, the priest gets out,

and this local tough guy is
basically like,

"Look, hand over everything."

Priest refuses, begins to walk away.

Two shots are fired, and the priest dies.

The tough guy and-and Carlos Ghosn's dad

mutually accuse each other
of the... of the m*rder.

But Ghosn's dad says
that he hired the local tough guy

to intimidate the priest, not to k*ll him.

Now, what the other guy says,

is that Georges actually fired the shot
that k*lled him.

In the end, they both get convicted.

Georges Ghosn always denied
having done this.

And eventually,
this sentence gets commuted on appeal.

And obviously incredibly tough
for someone like Carlos Ghosn.

So, for ten years, Carlos Ghosn grows up,
and his dad is absent.

Carlos never really spoke
about his father much.

But I think he wanted to prove to his dad
that he's not his dad,

that he's... You know, he's different.

When you're sitting there, waiting
for 30 minutes, it felt like eternity.

But finally,
they had permission for takeoff.

That's when I started feeling better.

Well, it looks like
we're gonna make it out of here.

I went back to get him out.

He had a smile from ear to ear.

I-I was happy.
I-I didn't believe it would happen.

This is where you started to feel
some kind of relief.

You are not out of the blue,
but you are out of Japan.

He said, "You know, you saved my life."
I said, "Yeah, I know I saved your life."

You know, so he...
He did recognize that.

Got a phone call
very early in the morning, like,

between 5:00 and 6:00.

My friend calls me up.
She goes, "Put your clothes on.

I'm coming to pick you up."

She took me to my mother's house.

And as I... we were pulling in,
Carlos pulled up with her husband.

And I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe he's in Beirut,
and he's standing in front of me.

It was a miracle.

He's free and he's here.

And I remember just hugging him
and just holding on to him,

and I... It was a...
It was such a great moment.

We've been separated
with the possibility

that I would probably never see her again.

Not before a very, very long time.

That's emotional, as you can imagine.

Um, very emotional also...
It was very strong moment.

First thing we did the next day...
It was 7:00 in the morning...

I put him in the car,
and we drove an hour and a half away

to the mountains to the saint and we...
You know, we prayed,

and we thanked him for the miracle.

When I arrived,
nobody knew that I was in Beirut.

Nobody knew in Lebanon.

Nobody knew in Japan.

So I called the presidency and say,

I want the president
to know that I'm in Lebanon.

At the beginning,
he thought I was freed by the Japanese,

so he was a little bit surprised
when I told him,

"No, no, it didn't happen like this."

Carlos Ghosn is like
a success story for every Lebanese.

You have from Shakira
to Salma Hayek to Carlos Ghosn.

So, that night I got a call from a friend
who is a journalist as well,

and he was telling me,
"I have the weirdest news in the world,

but I think Carlos Ghosn is in Lebanon."

The story started with a janitor
from the presidential palace

saying he saw Carlos Ghosn.

I was very skeptical,
so I started digging more.

I called a friend.

He was at a dinner,

and the Japanese ambassador
was there as well.

So, while he has me on the phone,
he tells me,

"Just a minute, I'll ask the ambassador."

The ambassador laughed so hard.

"He's in Japan."

But five minutes later,
the same friend calls me again,

and he tells me the ambassador
got a phone call,

and he left with the weirdest attitude
in the world.

I said, "My friend, I think
that what you told me was quite right."

When I started telling people what I know,
the news editors I called

were just laughing so hard

that they thought
I was too drunk from Christmas dinners.

But I called the CEO after that.

I tell him, "I am sure
that Carlos Ghosn is in Lebanon,

because reliable sources
from the presidential palace

confirmed that he met the president."

I ended up ten minutes
before the midnight bulletin on MTV.

How Carlos Ghosn
got to Beirut and the full account

of his house arrest in
Japan to his home in Ashrafieh.

Jean Nakhoul reports.

I announced
that Carlos Ghosn is in Lebanon,

that he met with the president
of the republic, Michel Aoun,

and that he fled in a music box.

And everywhere in the world,
it started exploding.

Welcome back. Top story this hour,
Carlos Ghosn on the run.

Details of the former Nissan exec's escape

are coming out little by little.

We're calling everybody we know,
and they didn't know anything.

He caught everybody unawares.

Carlos Ghosn's no longer in Japan.

They let him go?
No, he just... he left.

Mr. Ghosn is now in Lebanon.

I was so angry.

I kick... everything.

He appeared to have done
the Houdini trick.

Carlos, how'd you do it?

He was reportedly loaded
into a large black box.

One unverified report by the Lebanese
channel MTV... not that MTV...

Claimed he had been spirited away
in a large musical instrument case.

I heard about the music box
from a diplomatic source in Japan.

Where his wife is, we don't know.
I'm assuming she's with him.

It's a lot of question marks.

Many sources denied the-the story
of the music box at first.

There are more weird stories out there

than there are stories that have been
actually confirmed by anybody.

I started worrying that what if it wasn't
the story?

What if he's still in Japan?

That pink building over there

is the home of the defendant Carlos Ghosn.

It was like
a carnival in front of his house.

Maybe hundreds of journalists,
especially Japanese journalists.

Excuse me.

- Mr. Ghosn is in?
- I don't know.

You don't know?

They were daily sitting there.

It could have easily been one
of the worst moments of my career.

Ladies and gentlemen,
please be seated. Please be seated.

Seeing him in flesh was a relief.

It was an achievement for me.

I was the journalist who broke the story.

He made some arrangements
through his wife, of course.

And after his arrival to Lebanon,

many people believed
that she was the mastermind behind this,

and that she...
She was the strong iron lady

who got her husband out of Japan.

He was very tense
before the press conference.

He was super stressed, 'cause he knew
this is the moment of his life.

And he had to prove to the world,

"Why I escaped, and how I was treated,
and how unfair this all was."

And I remember, you know, we'd sit
with the PR, and he'd be working on it.

He's like, "I'm not feeling it.
I'm not feeling...

I'm not gonna do well."

And we were like,
"Yes, you are, once you're out there."

Sound.

Sound. Audio, please.

It was a big thing,
and the whole world watched him.

It was a huge thing for him.
It's a life-changer.

For the first time
since this nightmare began,

I can defend myself, speak freely.

Carlos Ghosn's having
a press conference in Beirut.

His sound bites were brilliant.

I did not escape justice.

I fled injustice.

It was very impressive to watch.

Very impressive to watch.

These allegations are untrue,

and I should have never been arrested
in the first place.

He was in Beirut, in his country,

a country that supported him
throughout the whole story.

A corrupt and hostile system
that presumed my guilt from day one.

And he was free.

He was speaking without being afraid
of the repercussions.

I would be ready to stand trial anywhere.

Here's the real problem, Carlos Ghosn had:

However great the escape might look
on TV, the truth is, this man fled.

So, why did you escape Japan?

Japan's number one criminal had escaped.

He has been deceiving everyone.

- Merci beaucoup. Merci.
- It was clear

they were gonna fight back.

My name was leaked.

That's when the proverbial sh*t
hit the fan.

Breaking news tonight.

Michael Taylor and his son Peter
are behind bars.

When you look at this hard drive,
this evidence changes everything.

The content of the criminal file
shocks the conscience.

If there is a victim into the whole story,
it's me.

Do I feel betrayed?

Absolutely feel betrayed.