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Nissan sues Ghosn's sister while Renault finds no irregularities in his pay

Nissan sued ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn's sister on Tuesday in a Rio de Janeiro court for "unjust enrichment," according to judicial records seen by Reuters. The suit is the latest twist to a bitter legal fight between Ghosn and Nissan over the contents of a beachfront apartment that the former executive used during his trips to Brazil. Brazilian-born Ghosn is accused of having underreported his income while leading the Japanese carmaker and diverting company funds for his personal use. He is being held in a prison in Japan and the carmaker says there might be evidence of his alleged crimes in the Rio apartment. Additional details regarding the unjust enrichment suit were not immediately available and it was unclear how long it might take to resolve the case. A representative for the Ghosn family did not have an immediate comment. The Japanese press had already reported that Ghosn's sister, Claudine Bichara de Oliveira, could be embroiled in the scandal. Yomuri, Japan's largest daily by circulation, reported in November citing unnamed sources that Nissan's internal investigation had found that Ghosn instructed the company since 2002 to pay some $100,000 a year to his elder sister. The compensation was supposed to be for a role as an adviser. The paper added that Bichara de Oliveira had in fact been living in and managing the Rio apartment that Nissan had bought for the use of Ghosn and that she had done no advisory work for the car maker. Meanwhile, Renault issued a preliminary report indicating that an audit launched in the wake of Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn's arrest in Japan had so far found no irregularities with his pay at the French carmaker. Ghosn was charged on Monday in Japan for failing to declare deferred income he had agreed to receive from Nissan, for the five years ending March 2015. There is speculation that Nissan itself may be indicted in Japan as part of the case against Ghosn. While Nissan fired Ghosn days after his Nov. 19 arrest, Renault has resisted pressure to replace him permanently. The Renault board also "noted that, at this stage, it does not have information concerning Carlos Ghosn's defense," the company said after its meeting, which had long been scheduled to discuss 2018-19 financial accounts. During the five-hour session, several directors led by Cherie Blair, wife of the British former prime minister Tony Blair, began to express impatience with that position, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Recharge Wrap-up: Telsa seeks to open new Texas Gallery, Gigafactory boosting NV real estate

Tesla's Gigafactory battery production facility is helping to create a real estate boom near its building site outside of Reno, NV. Land that stood vacant for years is being snatched up by developers eager to make a buck in what is appearing to become a new hub of high-tech industry. Much of the money influx seems to be coming from investors outside of the area. New apartment complexes are going up, and the usual six months of real estate inventory has been shrunken to about 2.6 months. Read more at Teslarati. Tesla is seeking approval for a limited-service showroom - or "Gallery" - in San Antonio, TX. The area's News 4 discovered the proposal in a schedule for the San Antonia planning commission. Texas laws don't allow Tesla to sell directly to consumers, so the gallery would offer the public a chance to see the car in person, but not take a test drive or get pricing information. The Tesla Gallery could be a foothold for Tesla in the San Antonio area, which, according to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, would be a positive addition to the city and its future. Judge Wolff says that Tesla moving in "shows that San Antonio is up with technology, blends with other efforts that we're doing with solar power." Read more at ValueWalk. Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L) will install over 1,000 ChargePoint EV charging stations in the greater Kansas City area. This will be the largest charging installation by a utility company in America. Drivers will be able to use these stations, which will be built by the end of this summer, for free for the first two years. The first 15 stations will be fast chargers provided by Nissan. KCP&L expects the charging network to help drive down electricity costs for customers in general. "People generally charge their cars at non-peak periods when KCP&L's electrical grid is being underutilized," says Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Energy Economist Ashok Gupta. "By stimulating electric vehicle adoption with their Clean Charge Network, what KCP&L is doing is encouraging people to use the electrical grid more efficiently and drive down the cost of electricity for everyone." Read more in the press release below. KCP&L BECOMES ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE LEADER WITH GROUNDBREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT KCP&L's Clean Charge Network will be the largest utility electric vehicle charging station installation in the country KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Jan.

Game on as Formula One fields teams for virtual eSports competition

HORLEY, England — Grand prix teams could be racing each other in the virtual world as well as the real one next season, and fighting to sign up the hottest gamer talent, as Formula One wakes to the power of eSports. Darren Cox, the man behind McLaren's "World's Fastest Gamer" competition who also saw one of his drivers win Formula One's first eSports series in Abu Dhabi last month, feels a tipping point has been reached this year. The former Nissan motorsport boss, who runs the eSPORTS+CARS virtual team, can also see the day dawning — in maybe three to five years' time — when top gamers are earning more than the lowest paid drivers on the real F1 starting grid. In a wide-ranging interview at a simulator center where his drivers train near London's Gatwick airport, Cox told Reuters that he expected Formula One teams to become involved in next year's eSports series. "If you look at what the NBA (basketball) has done ... they engaged the teams right at the beginning. So 17 of the NBA teams have got franchises for the virtual side of the sport, and there's a draft like in the real world. "So expect something like that to come out of (Formula One owners) Liberty," added Cox. "It's happening now. Those conversations are being had. "This absolutely will be a big priority for them (Liberty), and I believe they have made it clear to the teams that they will be involved, in some way. "And then I guess it's down to the teams about how involved they want to be." Kitchen porter turns champion Formula One's first eSports series was won by Brendon Leigh, an 18-year-old kitchen porter who had never previously been out of Britain. Leigh, who drives for Cox's team and emerged triumphant from 63,000 initial hopefuls, is likely to go professional. Some gamers in other arenas are already earning more than $1 million a year, and Cox said the rewards in motorsport were growing all the time. "If you go back 18 months, these guys were winning an X-box and a free subscription, not any cash. The cash has suddenly come, and I think that will ramp up," said the man who has been dubbed the "Godfather of virtual racing." Cox dismissed as irrelevant the debate about whether eSport is a sport. "It's here, it's got millions of viewers, it's got a commercial backbone that is strong. It doesn't matter if someone in sport thinks it's a sport or not. eSports don't care." He expected all the big F1 teams to end up partnering with outfits like his.