Former CEO Buys Lordstown Motors’ Assets for $10 Million
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CLEVELAND, Ohio — The former CEO of Lordstown Motors Corp. has bought the company’s assets for $10 million, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Steve Burns, who was also a member of the board of directors, resigned in June 2021. He is the majority equity holder of LAS Capital LLC. Julio Rodriguez, former chief financial officer for Lordstown Motors Corp., is one of the “indirect managers of LAS Capital,” the documents say.
“LAS Capital has agreed to acquire specified assets of the selling entities related to the design, production and sale of electric light-duty vehicles focused on the commercial fleet market free and clear of liens, claims, encumbrances, and other interests, and assume certain specified liabilities of the selling entities,” the documents say.
The sale includes all machinery, including the hub motor assembly lines, the battery module assembly lines, the battery pack assembly lines and related or associated machinery and all inventory, among other items.
The deal contains termination rights for both the company and LAS Capital, including the right to terminate the deal if it doesn’t close by Oct. 31.
A Lordstown spokesman said in an email to cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that the company is not providing additional comment beyond the documents that were filed.
Trump and Burns (right) tout Lordstown Motors' Endurance electric pickup truck at the White House in September of 2020. (Ken Cedeno/Sipa via Bloomberg News)
Lordstown has had a troubled history since it bought the former GM plant in 2019 and promised to bring jobs back to Northeast Ohio. While the company was trumpeted as a manufacturing success by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, in four years, the company produced fewer than 100 of its flagship electric vehicles — the all-electric Endurance pickup truck.
In June the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and took legal action against Foxconn, the global electronics manufacturer that was meant to be its savior.
The departures of Burns and Rodriguez from Lordstown were announced the same day the company answered to a stinging March 2021 report from Hindenburg Research that “questioned the number of preorders the company claimed to have received for its marquee Endurance vehicle,” according to a cleveland.com story.
Lordstown Motors warned that same month that it might go out of business within a year. The company said it didn’t have enough money to start larger production of the Endurance truck.
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