LORDSTOWN — Certain assets of bankrupt Lordstown Motors Corp. fetched $10.2 million in a deal approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court judge Wednesday — $200,000 more than in the original winning bid by a company formed by the founder and ex-CEO of the electric-vehicle company.

The increased amount accounts for computers and other assets at the company’s satellite offices in Irving, California, and Farmington Hills, Michigan, sites Lordstown Motors used for engineering, product development and vehicle inspections.

Winning bidder Steve Burns and his LAS Capital LLC agreed to pay more to resolve, or clarify, differences between LAS Capital and Lordstown Motors over assets that were to be included in a purchase agreement.

His was the only qualified bid determined by Lordstown Motors and Jefferies LLC, a New York City-based investment banking and financial services firm that has been advising Lordstown Motors through the sale process.

It was announced in court documents Sept. 29 that LAS Capital would acquire assets related to the “design, production and sale of electric light-duty vehicles” in the commercial fleet market, the space Lordstown Motors attempted to occupy.

“Those purchased assets don’t include everything, but they do include many things,” David M. Turetsky, an attorney for Lordstown Motors said during Wednesday’s hearing. “The purchased assets include vehicles owned by the debtors, machinery owned by the debtors, IP (intellectual property), inventory, IT contracts, certain desktops, laptops, books and records.”

Before Judge Mary F. Walrath approved the sale in the brief 30-minute hearing, Lordstown Motors settled all objections to the sale, which Turetsky said was “hard fought” and at “arm’s length.” In addition, throughout the sale process, Lordstown Motors was transparent about the involvement of Burns and former Lordstown Motors chief financial officer Julio Rodriguez, who holds the same role with LAS Capital.

Both resigned from Lordstown Motors on the same day — June 14, 2021 — without reason, however, under a cloud that preorder statements for the company’s flagship vehicle, the battery-powered Endurance truck, were inaccurate.

During the Chapter 11 process, neither had any control over the selection of LAS Capital by Lordstown Motors, Turetsky said.

“From a business judgment perspective, the facts supported by the evidence demonstrate that this is a sound exercise of the debtors business judgment, that the debtors have conducted an open and fair process, one at arm’s length, one that has been extensive …” Turetsky said.

The financial firm Jefferies marketed the company’s assets to 175 prospective purchases, of which 42 executed nondisclosure agreements to access confidential records. Nine parties submitted bids.

Burns attended the hearing held via Zoom, but did not testify.

He also is majority equity holder of LandX Holdings Inc., the parent company of LAS Capital’s affiliate, LandX Motors Inc., which LAS Capital will assign its rights to under the purchase agreement before closing.

After his departure from Lordstown Motors, Burns, who was given a severance of $750,000 payable over 18 months, began to in November 2021 unload his shares in the company and took away a total of more than $66 million.

FOXCONN

Dan Guyder, attorney for the Taiwanese technology giant that acquired its EV assembly plant in Lordstown, the former General Motors small-car assembly plant, from Lordstown Motors said Lordstown Motors has equipment in about 600,000 square feet of the more than 6 million-square-foot factory.

“So there is a fair amount of space there as well as a substantial amount of equipment that will require some logistics and effort in terms of transition that equipment of the premises,” Guyder said, adding Foxconn is available to help in that process “subject to reasonable limits.”

“We hope that the debtors will proceed to closing with speed here and turn next to the logistics of trying to transition the assets,” Guyder said.

Meanwhile, an adversary lawsuit Lordstown Motors filed against Foxconn claiming fraud remains pending. Court records show Foxconn filed a motion to dismiss the complaint Sept. 29.

Lordstown Motors has until Nov. 6 to object to Foxconn’s motion and Foxconn has until Nov. 30 to respond.

OTHER MOTIONS

Walrath also denied a motion by Rahul Singh, a South Carolina man who asked for his and other shareholder claims to be processed immediately from Lordstown Motors’ existing cash balance.

In a motion, Singh states his family invested more than $1 million from their retirement accounts into Lordstown Motors stock.

Morgan Patterson, attorney for Lordstown Motors, objected, saying although Lordstown Motors is sympathetic to Singh and the other claim holders, “that payment will come through the plan process as the bankruptcy code provides.”

“The debtors don’t believe it would be appropriate at this time for Mr. Singh or other creditors to jump in line,” she said, adding paying shareholders would violate priority rule at the moment for claims payment.

Also, an uncontested motion Wednesday gave the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission until Nov. 10 to file a complaint or take other action against Lordstown Motors, which has been the subject of an SEC investigation since February 2021.