Former automotive executive Carlos Ghosn's mysterious escape from Japan and his arrival in Lebanon set off a media firestorm shortly before the new year holiday. Reporters and investigators in Lebanon, Japan, Turkey and beyond have continued to probe how he slipped through Japan's fingers.

One party that isn't talking is Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The New York firm's lawyers, including Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp and litigation department co-chair Michael Gertzman, were prominently described as part of his "global defense team," made up of at least seven law firms and solo practitioners, according to an Oct. 23 press release.

Messages for Karp weren't returned Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, and media representatives for Paul Weiss directed questions to a spokeswoman for Ghosn. The spokeswoman said she had nothing to add to his initial statement announcing his escape.

The stories that have poured out since Ghosn reportedly escaped to Turkey, and then Lebanon, on Dec. 29 and 30 have included vivid descriptions, mostly from anonymous sources, alleging how Ghosn made his escape. A Lebanese television station said he was smuggled out of his house in a musical instrument case of some kind, an account that was repeated Thursday by Japan's Kyodo News, which named one of Ghosn's friends as its source. The French newspaper Le Monde said his wife Carole and a network of other contacts were key players in his flight to safety. (Ghosn denied reports of his wife's involvement in a Thursday statement.)

One of the only sources close to Ghosn to say anything on the record about the caper has been his lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, who has his own law office. In remarks captured by the broadcaster NHK, he said he was "shocked and confused" at the news and said that he was holding all three of Ghosn's passports—from Brazil, where he was born, and Lebanon and France, where he grew up and was educated.

"I personally don't have any clue how to contact Carlos Ghosn," he said in a translated video from Reuters. Hironaka was quoted in other accounts as saying that it would have taken a "big organization" to help Ghosn escape.

In the October press release, Ghosn's lawyers, including Karp and Gertzman, said the financial-crime charges against their client were tainted by prosecutorial misconduct. They said the allegations of wrongdoing were cooked up by Japanese government officials and people at Nissan who opposed his plans for a closer relationship between the marquee Japanese automaker and France's Renault.

Paul Weiss was the only U.S.-based firm listed among his defense counsel. Ghosn's other lawyers were based in France, Lebanon and Japan.

Paul Weiss said in September that it had helped Ghosn ink a $1 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he didn't admit fault but put to rest allegations "related to financial disclosures that allegedly omitted more than $140 million to be paid to Mr. Ghosn in retirement."

In an interview with the American Lawyer earlier in 2019, Karp said Japanese authorities tried to "break" Ghosn and make him confess in a system that his lawyers have called "hostage justice." Japan's conviction rate is around 99%, even for cases that go to trial, according to a 2000 paper by two U.S. law professors.

Nonetheless, Karp said at the time that Ghosn was looking forward to his day in court.

In his initial statement announcing his escape and his arrival in Lebanon, Ghosn said he "will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied."

"I have not fled justice—I have escaped injustice and political persecution," he said Dec. 30.