Lordstown Motors Corp.
RIDE -17.62%
said its chief executive and top financial leader have resigned, decisions that come amid a new report from a board committee that says some aspects of disclosures it made about truck preorders were inaccurate.
Lordstown Motors, which plans to manufacture electric trucks at a plant in Ohio, on Monday said
Steve Burns,
its CEO, and
Julio Rodriguez,
its finance chief, have stepped down from the company. Mr. Burns also stepped down from the company’s board, according to Lordstown Motors.
Mr. Burns declined to comment. Efforts to reach Mr. Rodriguez, including asking for comment through a company spokesman, weren’t immediately successful.
The company also said Monday that a special board committee found that some disclosures it made about preorders for the truck it hopes to manufacture were inaccurate. The committee largely rejected a report about Lordstown from short-seller Hindenburg Research, the company said.
The committee was established to investigate allegations made by Hindenburg, which in a March report said that Lordstown Motors had misled investors about the strength of its preorder reservations and progress toward starting production of an electric truck.
Lordstown Motors said in a disclosure earlier this month that it doesn’t have enough cash on hand to start full commercial production.
Photo:
Dustin Franz/Bloomberg News
Angela Strand,
the company’s lead independent director, has been appointed executive chairwoman of its board. She will oversee Lordstown Motors during a transition period until a permanent CEO is hired, the company said.
“We remain committed to delivering on our production and commercialization objectives, holding ourselves to the highest standards of operation and performance and creating value for shareholders,” Ms. Strand said in a statement.
A special board committee had said on Monday that parts of disclosures the company made about its preorder book were inaccurate. One entity that provided a large number of preorders doesn’t appear to have the resources to complete large purchases or trucks, according to the committee, which analyzed the preorders as part of an investigation into the Hindenburg report.
The committee concluded that the Hindenburg report about Lordstown Motors was false and misleading in significant respects.
Earlier in June, the company said in a disclosure that it doesn’t have enough cash on hand to start full commercial production and has questions about whether it can continue as a going concern through the end of the year.
Lordstown Motors also said Monday that, among other personnel changes,
Becky Roof
will serve as interim finance chief and that
Jane Ritson-Parsons
has been appointed operations chief.
Lordstown Motors
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Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]
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