Lordstown Motors, the bankrupt electric truck maker, will pay $25.5 million under a settlement deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that the company misled investors, the agency said Thursday.
The SEC alleged that Lordstown exaggerated the demand for its Endurance pickup truck to investors by saying that more than 100,000 nonbinding pre-orders were from customers operating commercial fleets — the company’s target market.
Instead, nearly three-quarters came from “intermediaries or influencers,” the SEC said, pointing to findings from a special committee that was created by the Lordstown board. The committee was formed to look into similar allegations from short-selling firm Hindenburg Research.
“We allege that, in a highly competitive race to deliver the first mass-produced electric pickup truck to the U.S. market, Lordstown oversold true demand for the Endurance,” said Mark Cave, associate director of enforcement at the SEC, in a statement.
