By Shawn Henry 
An OpenAI bigwig is dragging McLaren Automotive into court, claiming a glitzy Monterey Car Week bash at her swanky estate landed her with a staggering six-figure fine. Fidji Simo, the brains behind OpenAI’s apps, and her husband, Remy Miralles, slapped the luxury carmaker and its marketing sidekick, BMF Media, with a lawsuit. The couple alleges they got duped into hosting a shindig at their Carmel Valley spread last August, one that supposedly never had the green light from local officials.
Learn why the story of a stolen Bentley Mulsanne has taken a weird turn here.
Turns out, McLaren had shelled out to use the couple’s posh nine-acre French-style property for a week of exclusive soirées tied to Monterey’s high-octane car fest. Here’s the kicker: while the automaker was supposed to handle the paperwork, county inspectors crashed the party on August 13, dropping an eye-watering $505,000 fine for permit violations.
Court docs claim BMF Media’s crew knew the permits were MIA but kept it hush-hush from Simo’s team to avoid derailing the festivities. The couple says they were fed a line about the mess being “sorted,” only to later discover Monterey County had jacked up the penalty to a jaw-dropping $761,975—with zero chance to fight it unless they coughed up the cash first.
Simo and her hubby fronted the whole amount in September, but now they’re going scorched earth. The lawsuit throws around accusations like fraud, contractual sabotage, and flat-out lying. Worse? The event crew allegedly blew past every rule the couple had set for their property, leaving them out of pocket and seriously rattled.
Their estate, a stunner tucked at 22 Scarlett Road and worth upwards of $6 mil, sits just a stone’s throw from Monterey’s car-freak paradise. The case got bumped to federal court, with Simo’s team gunning for damages covering the fines, wrecked contracts, and the whole circus of stress from the rogue event.
Earlier this month, Simo’s lawyers yanked the initial filing—but don’t think they’re backing down. Word is, they’re reloading with a fresh lawsuit, possibly tossing more culprits into the legal wringer over this permit-less fiasco.
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John