Saints owner Gayle Benson has alleged that executives from carmaker Nissan Motor Company and rival local car dealer Matt Bowers conspired to sabotage a deal she had to buy Nissan and Infiniti dealerships in south Mississippi and Metairie from the Ray Brandt Auto Group.
The allegations were made in a letter dated March 15 from Benson lawyer Gregory Rouchell to Kyle Wierzbicki, Nissan’s director of dealer network operations, informing the Nissan executive that Benson believed the carmaker had illegally blocked her deal to buy the two dealerships and instead arranged for Bowers to buy them.
The letter is part of documentation filed with the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission, the state regulator for the car industry, in a case Benson has brought asking the agency to intervene in the matter.
The documents were obtained by the Times-Picayune via a public records request. Benson is objecting to Nissan’s decision to exercise its “right of first refusal,” a commonly used tool that allows carmakers to intervene in the sale of a dealership and put in a preferred buyer.
The carmakers can do so for a variety of reasons, for example to increase the diversity of their dealer network, encourage additional investments or to put in someone with a better performance record.
The price paid to the seller must be at least as much as the initial offer if the carmaker opts to bring in a different buyer.
In his letter, Rouchell alleged that Nissan used missed deadlines set as part of the deal as a ploy to switch buyers unfairly.
Nissan’s claim “is nothing more than a pretext” to justify an “untimely and unlawful exercise” of the right of first refusal, he wrote.
The real motivation, he alleged, was to edge out Benson in favor of Bowers, who Rouchell claimed has personal relationships with top Nissan executives.
“Mr. Bowers (a competitor of Mrs. Benson) pressured Nissan/Infiniti — through his personal relationships with high-level executives — to exercise these untimely and invalid” rights of first refusal, Rouchell wrote.
“It is the legal position of Mrs. Benson that Mr. Bowers’ actions give rise to an actionable claim against…both Mr. Bowers and Nissan/Infiniti for civil conspiracy,” in both Louisiana and Mississippi, Rouchell asserted.
A Benson spokesman declined to comment beyond what was in the documentation. A Nissan spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Bowers’ attorney, Jeremy Hebert, said the allegations were “unfounded,” and added that Benson’s issue would be with the car company, not his client.
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