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Nissan Whistleblower Compares DOE Spending on the Nissan Leaf EV with Solar Firm Solyndra: Bovat Testified at the TN State Capital about Wasted Spending of Taxpayer Funds

Nissan Whistleblower Compares DOE Spending on the Nissan Leaf EV with Solar Firm Solyndra: Bovat Testified at the TN State Capital about Wasted Spending of Taxpayer Funds

Sharyn Bovat went to Washington DC to complain about the DOE granting millions of dollars on EV fast chargers that will ONLY work on Japanese cars

Franklin, Tennessee (PRWEB) September 27, 2011

The 3 time jailed whistleblower from Nissan Sharyn Bovat (case # gsc -3714) says she’s now an advocate for taxpayers rights and is promoting transparency of DOE spending. Last week she told Tennessee State legislatures that she alleges her arrest were harassment for complaining about how DOE money has been spent.

Prior to Bovat’s arrest she was considered one of the top relocation consultants in Middle Tennessee. It was her job to make people from all over the world WANT to move to TN. Since 2006 she helped NISSAN executives. In 2009 NISSAN she worked for Nissan board member Carlos Tavares.

When working with Carlos Tavares the 1st Nissan EVP to work outside Japan Sharyn became a whistle Blower and told him of discrimination against women: women in management at NISSAN declined from 20.9% in 2006 to 10% in 2009

Bovat also whistle blew on wasted spending of Tennessee taxpayer money. Bovat had documented that at taxpayer expense she was asked to find a spa for oxygen facials for a French VP. After Nissan applied for a DOE loan of over a billion American tax dollars in June 2009 she started a blogging about discrimination & spending.

At last week’s Court of Judiciary hearing in Nashville Tennessee Sharyn Bovat spoke her full written statement is at http://www.nissanwhistleblower.com . Sharyn said is not alone in her concerns & recently US Congressional Rep. Cliff Stearns, Chairman of the oversight and investigations committee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said “I think we have other Solyndras out there…” adding “The government should not be picking winners and losers — that’s what they’re doing with Nissan…”

Two weeks ago Bovat traveled to Washington DC to communicate that the DOE was spending money on electric car chargers that will only work on Japanese cars saying “Fast Chargers are being installed for over 100,000 in Washington State, Oregon and Illinois are paid for by DOE grants and the level 3 fast charger function will ONLY work on the NISSAN Leaf & Mitsubishi. Toyotas will NOT work on the new “Fast Chargers” being installed.    

A Reuter’s article backs up the allegation “the RAV4 EV will not include a ChaDeMo charging port. Toyota will not offer fast charging on any vehicles until the SAE determines a standard.” http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/13/idUS357178020420110713 and the New York Times has written articles about the problem. http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/ecotalitys-fast-charging-units-good-news-for-leaf-owners-and-for-now . Autoevolution states “The only car that can use Level 3 plug charger installed in Washington is the Nissan Leaf.” http://www.autoevolution.com/news/first-ev-highway-in-us-to-be-built-in-washington-37131.html

During the judicial hearing Bovat quoted a Forbes article saying “…the Leaf’s ‘real world’ range is 58 miles per charge. NOT the 100 that was touted to get the DOE funds…..and it’s been on her blog that the battery technology NISSAN is using is the same form the 90’s”

According to Elon Musk the CEO of Tesla the Nissan leaf battery is a “much more primitive level of technology” http://gigaom.com/cleantech/tesla-ceo-nissans-leaf-battery-is-primitive/

Bovat claims that Nissan insiders contacted Bovat telling her the technology for the NISSAN Leaf battery was created in the 90’s C.A.R.B. days when California required all car manufacturers to build EV’s.

Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns sums it all up by saying “I am concerned that the DOE is providing loans and loan guarantees to firms that aren’t capable of competing in the global market, even with government subsidies” New York Times: Full article: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45886

NISSAN has spent government money from 5 countries to build capacity to make 500.000 Leafs per year. In June 2011 in Tokyo at the shareholders meeting it was announced the companies goal is to sell 250,000 a year. Bovat says that means 1/2 the jobs promised to the various countries will NOT happen

NISSAN has to sell 500,000 Leafs to “break even” & as of September they’ve sold a little over 12,000 worldwide!!! Carlos Ghosn has publically stated that the project must be profitable to succeed.

According to a recent USA Today article the Electric Car is have a “slow” start with the headline reading: Europeans showing little interest in electric cars http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/09/europeans-showing-mute-interest-in-electric-cars/1

Bovat believes NISSAN and those profiting from the DOE funded project wanted her discredited. Had she NOT spent 14 months + battling a trice “trumped up” 1st time misdemeanor she would have filed a False Claims lawsuit on behalf of the American taxpayers.

For over 2 years she’s posted lots of bad spending & discrimination at http://www.girlintheblackhonda.com & Nissan has never issued a court order telling her to take it down so it’s still online. Bovat has since started other blogs including http://www.americantaxpayersforcommonsense.com , http://www.nissanwhistleblower and her newest http://www.carlostavaresrenault.com that blog was started after the man she first whistle blew too got promoted to lead Nissan’s parent partner Renault.

Sharyn Bovat cannot understand how after blogging for over year & without a court order why she was arrested at Nissan North America. Bovat says “6 police cars were sent to haul me, an unarmed relocation consultant to jail & the irony is that the warrant was ‘sworn out’ by a man that I had blogged about harassing me for a year.”

Why was Sharyn Bovat jailed 3 times in Tennessee???

Why has a relocation consultant who’s also a carpool mom, a woman with no criminal record endured excessive arrests & prosecution???

Why was a 1st time misdemeanor assigned to a Special Prosecutor, 2 assistant DA’s and now an Independent Prosecutor???

Why does the judicial system let the harassment of a whistleblower continue for over 14 months..???

Bovat believes the answer is that Nissan wanted to discredit her saying “had I NOT spent 14 months + battling a trice ‘trumped up’ 1st time misdemeanor I would have filed a False Claims lawsuit on behalf of the American taxpayers and I think Nissan knew that”

Sharyn Bovat is frustrated with the fact she’s done over 10 press releases and the local paper still does not report her story. Bovat even started a blog about the lack of press http://www.gannettmcnews.com .

The former Tennessean editor Mark Silverman has met with Bovat on numerous occasions and Bovat says he told her “one reason the Tennessean is not covering the story of a Whistle blower being jailed 3 times in Middle Tennessee is because he was understaffed at the Gannett owned paper” Sharyn adds “then a month later his paper laid off more reporters.”

A recent FCC report states “A shortage of reporting manifests itself in invisible ways: stories not written, scandals not exposed, government waste not discovered, health dangers not identified in time, local elections involving candidates about whom we know little,”

Sharyn Bovat is tired of all the drama in reference to NISSAN and she wants to move on with her life saying “I just want the DOE to audit all the companies that are not in bankruptcy like Solyndra and I want the American taxpayer respected. Those of use that pay taxes have worked hard and it’s about time we got respect.

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Tags: About, Bovat, Capital, Compares, Firm, Funds, Leaf, Nissan, Solar, Solyndra, Spending, State, Taxpayer, Testified, Wasted, Whistleblower

Technology and the Whistleblower

As the meeting comes to a close, your boss smirks with an self assured arrogance. He then says that you should seriously consider his offer, because he has it on good authority, that there may be a very localized downsizing in your department. Wouldn’t it be nice to smirk back and just say “no thanks”.

This scenario plays out more often then most people realize. With all of the recent business and government scandals there were a lot of people who knew that books were being cooked, laws being broken and the health of the public being put at risk, just to keep profits high and investors content. Many people felt that there was nothing they could do against powerful executives and corrupt bureaucrats. The credibility of a low level employee compared to that of a ‘successful’ corporate executive is a huge hurdle to overcome. Also, corporate lawyers are there to defend the company, even from internal hazards. So, once a person decides to speak up, they must be prepared to have their credibility brutally attacked and the onslaught of legal preceding from an all-star team of corporate lawyers.

Just the thought of legal proceedings can stop a person from making the ethical choice. It’s easy for people to be vilified by their employer, at which point the credibility of the person speaking out is destroyed. How is possible for a single person to fight a company or government with infinite resources? Many years ago, it was practically impossible. However, the “digital revolution” may have changed the balance of power. For a “whistleblower” to be effective they need proof of wrong doing and a method to communicate those issues to the public. The availability of compact electronic devices such as digital audio recorders and digital cameras allow an individual to document many of the issues and bring the power back to the whistleblower.

The first piece of technology that should be in every whistleblowers repertoire is a digital audio recorder. These devices are so small that they can be put in a shirt pocket without being noticed. Once you decide to “blow the whistle” you should start recording all of your conversations. Keep a log of the items discussed, so that you can refer to the appropriate recording when needed, otherwise you can spend hours going back over the content. The best part is that these devices are not expensive. A digital voice recorder costs about $100, or many times MP3 players have a microphone built into the device, so they can be used to record conversations.

Another device that is very handy is a voice modem with telephone recording software. This will allow you to, hook up your phone, and record any conversations that occur over the phone. If you get fired before you have all the evidence, sometimes telephone conversations, with the people in power, can help to document important facts, because people very rarely think they are being recorded and say things that they probably should not have.

Make sure you check your local laws regarding conversation recording. In most places it is legal to record with one-party consent. One-party consent means that if you are involved in the conversation, you do not need to notify the other parties that you are recording the conversation. In Canada, one-party consent is the law. In the United States it is a little more complicated, as some states have their own regulations. You can refer to this recording law chart (http://www.snakeoil.ca/docs/recordinglaw.html) to determine what laws affect you. If in doubt, speak with a lawyer.

The third device every whistleblower should have is a digital camera. Many times the violations are in manufacturing or packaging, which could be a public health concern. These can be very hard to document and prove, since the paper records may be manipulated. A picture says a thousand words though, and will help authorities uncover doctored documents. When taking pictures be very cautious as most companies prohibit camera’s on their premises. Many cell phones are now equipped with digital camera’s, so they are easier to conceal. Take as many pictures as you can and try to prove the date you took them. Some camera have a date stamp feature, even though this is easy to manipulate. The best option is to take a picture of the daily newspaper beside the offending subject. This is very hard for lawyers to argue against and disprove that the violations did occurred on that particular date.

The last piece of equipment needed is a computer. When the authorities begin investigating your complaint, you will need to produce your evidence such as documents pointing to the issues. Most corporations are moving towards a paperless environment, which means that these documents will only be accessible by a computer. The other important part your computer plays, is to backup all of those images and audio recordings. Make sure your computer has a CD writer or DVD writer. Take these backups and put them somewhere secure, like a bank deposit box.

One area of concern is the removal of corporate documents from the office. This can violate many legal agreements you may have signed. If you are worried about this, there is a very simple solution. Backup all of the evidence files at work and stash them somewhere in the office. In the ceiling or in duct work is a great place. Basically, anywhere nobody ever looks. When it is time to produce these documents, simply tell the authorities that you have stashed them in a safe place at the office. The evidence is kept safe and you haven’t violated any agreements, a win-win situation.

In the future, companies may begin banning digital devices from the workplace for the exact reasons being discussed here. However, if were are persistent, it may go the other way and corporate behavior may change, which is the ultimate goal of being a whistleblower. The days of “plausible deniability” and “disgruntled employees” are disappearing quickly.

Tags: Technology, Whistleblower