Lordstown Motors Founder Settles with SEC Over Misleading Investor Claims

Former Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns settles with the SEC for misleading investors about the demand for the company's Endurance pickup truck. Burns agreed to a $175,000 fine and a two-year ban from serving as an officer or director of a public company. The SEC's investigation found that Lordstown Motors and Burns made misleading statements about the number of pre-orders for the truck, which created an unrealistic depiction of demand.

Lordstown Motors Founder Steve Burns Settles with SEC over Misleading Investor Statements

Washington, D.C., August 17, 2023 - Steve Burns, the former founder, chairman, and CEO of electric vehicle (EV) startup Lordstown Motors, has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with allegations that he misled investors about the demand for the company's Endurance pickup truck.

According to the settlement agreement filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Burns has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $175,000 and is prohibited from serving as an officer or director of a public company for two years. Burns neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations.

The SEC's investigation, which commenced in February 2024, found that Lordstown Motors and Burns made materially misleading statements to investors regarding the sales prospects of the Endurance pickup truck. In particular, the SEC alleged that Lordstown Motors and Burns overstated the number of pre-orders for the vehicle, including by claiming that 100,000 nonbinding pre-orders had been received from commercial fleet customers.

The SEC's investigation revealed that the majority of these pre-orders were not submitted by commercial fleet customers, as Lordstown Motors had represented. Instead, many of the pre-orders came from companies that did not operate fleets or did not intend to purchase the truck for their own use.

The SEC's findings further indicated that Lordstown Motors and Burns used these inflated pre-order numbers to create an unrealistic and inaccurate depiction of demand for the Endurance truck from commercial fleet customers. This, in turn, misled investors about the company's prospects and contributed to its subsequent financial difficulties.

Lordstown Motors settled its own charges with the SEC in February 2024, agreeing to pay a $25.5 million penalty.

Burns founded Lordstown Motors in 2019 as an offshoot of his other company, Workhorse Group. The company went public in 2020 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) named DiamondPeak Holdings Corp. During and after the merger, Lordstown Motors raised $780 million from investors.

Lordstown Motors initially attracted significant attention and investment, including from General Motors, which acquired the company's assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. However, the company faced challenges in producing and selling its vehicles, and its share price plummeted from its peak in 2020.

In June 2021, Burns and other Lordstown Motors executives resigned amid the SEC's investigation and allegations of misleading investors. Lordstown Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2022 and emerged from bankruptcy in March 2023 under a new name, Nu Ride Inc.

Since his departure from Lordstown Motors, Burns has launched a new company called LandX Motors.