A court hearing for selling the start of bankruptcy trucks for Nikola’s assets for Lucid Motors was going smoothly on Friday. No objection was filed in the transaction, and Delaware Thomas Horaran’s bankruptcy judge approved it without hesitation.
Meanwhile, a lawyer tried to call the magnification towards the end of the hearing.
The lawyer said his client “has some concerns” about how to execute the auction process. These could be addressed at a later date, he said, but he stressed that he did not want his client’s silence to “hold against us in the future”.
The lawyer represented Isso LLC, an entity that the founder of Nikola Trevor Milton has used to evaluate an offer for his former Company’s assets. As part of this process, he had already been detained by Nikola from visiting her factory in Arizona – a decision the Horan judge stayed until last week.
While the approval of the sale in Lucci was bold, the late appearance by the Milton representative was an ominous sign that he was not made looking for in his previous company.
Fresh by a pardon by President Donald Trump, who helped him avoid serving a four -year prison sentence, it is possible that Milton could try to fight an arbitration price of the $ 168 million he was ordered to pay last year.
This arbitration award remains a major component of the bankruptcy issue of Chapter 11 of Nicolas. Prior to bankruptcy, Nikola was able to resolve a lawsuit of classroom action by shareholders about the false claims Milton made while serving as the company’s CEO. But she was able to do so by promising to distribute that arbitration award to those shareholders.
Nikola also has some wealth she hopes to sell after the sober transaction. Lucid bought the rent of Foolidge’s headquarters, Arizona and Phoenix headquarters, plus production equipment. It will also hire 300 or more Nikola employees. But Nikola is still holding in its inventory of large hydrogen power devices and other other devices.
Joshua Morris, a lawyer for Nikola, said that at the hearing that he was not surprised Isso and Milton “would like to try and tarnish these procedures.”
“This is a model of behavior we have seen over and over,” Morris said. “We believe these are unfounded assertions. When asked any evidence or any specificity, no one was given. We think your honor should see these with a yellow eye.”
Morris continued to say that he believes that Milton’s participation in the sale process seems to be “an attempt to continue damaging the company for a benefit that I cannot fully ascertain”.
He added that Milton may be throwing a salary in the sale process in the hope of affecting that arbitration price.
“Perhaps the show is to give (Nikola) desperate for cash so that the Committee (of unsafe creditors) force the debtor to try or accept any low ball repayment proposals,” he said. “We just know that we believe we have developed the selling process with an opening and included all parties.”
The lawyers left things there and let the hearing approach. A spokesman for Milton did not respond immediately to a comment request.
