Luminar says founder Austin Russell is suing for money laundering

Lidar-maker Luminar says its founder and former CEO Austin Russell has been evading numerous requests — including a subpoena — that the company needs to decide whether to file charges against him.

The company, which entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late December, said emergency dispatch at the end of the week that has been trying to get the company’s equipment back from Russell since he resigned in May. Although it has recovered six computers, Luminar still wants the phone provided by Russell’s company and a digital copy of his phone.

Luminar’s lawyers also wrote in the filing that Russell and his employees repeatedly misled legal representatives about the founder’s vacation location. They are asking the court to allow them to send Russell by mail or email. A lawyer for Luminar declined to comment further.

In the emails included in the leak, Russell said he was cooperating and had been trying to get assurances from Luminar that everything on its devices would be protected.

“The company refused, so we’re going to pursue the process that the securities court will protect,” Leonard Shulman, Russell’s attorney, told TechCrunch in a statement.

The emergency filing is one of the first to unravel in a series of bankruptcy proceedings involving Luminar’s attempt to sell two of its biggest business units. The company is seeking court approval for a deal already reached to sell its semiconductor company. for a company called Quantum Computing, Inc.and has set a deadline of January 9 to fund its lidar unit.

Russell, through his new venture Russell AI Labs, tried to buy Luminar before it filed for Chapter 11 and has said it wants to cash in on the investment. “As it relates to Luminar, our focus remains on what’s important: Russell AI Labs’ desire to rebuild the company and bring value to its stakeholders,” Shulman said.

Luminar’s lawyers said in the filing that it began seeking information from Mr. Russell in May, shortly after he abruptly resigned following “policies of business ethics and conduct” drawn up by the company’s ethics committee. The company was evaluating whether to file charges against him “in connection with the Audit Committee’s investigation and the loans Mr. Russell took,” according to the filing. But Luminar said those efforts were unsuccessful and Russell disagreed.

On November 12, Luminar’s board of directors established a Special Investigative Committee and hired the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges to investigate “certain actions, omissions, actual and potential events and actions of or relating to Luminar’s management and officers.”

A month later, shortly before the fall, Weil’s lawyers contacted the law firm McDermott Will & Schulte, which had previously represented Russell. Weil’s lawyers asked about collecting Russell’s Luminar-issued laptops and desktop computers, along with his company-issued phone and a digital copy (or “image”) of his phone.

Weil’s attorneys spent a week trying to confirm whether McDermott would represent Russell in the Special Investigative Committee case, but on December 19 found out that he would not. Weil’s attorneys attempted to contact Russell directly on his behalf.

Russell responded for the first time on Christmas Eve, according to the filing. He later allowed McDermott to turn over the computers (which the company has had since he resigned), but the founder repeatedly requested that Luminar’s lawyers not search personal information on his phone calls, emails attached to the emergency report.

“I have offered direct cooperation and prompt action, even during the holiday season – but if one protection cannot be guaranteed, I am advised that further deliberation on this matter may not be effective,” Mr Russell wrote in an email on New Year’s Day.

Luminar representatives arranged for an investigator to appear at Russell’s Florida home on New Year’s Day. But the expert was rejected by Russell’s defense team, which Luminar’s lawyer called “unacceptable.”

Russell said the star was sent to her home “unannounced” on the morning of the holiday “while I was sleeping,” and said she wanted to protect her privacy. Luminar’s attorney responded that he had “repeatedly confirmed that we have no intention of looking at any documents other than those related to Luminar.” Russell responded on January 2 that “(a)ny view that I disagreed with is completely incorrect” and criticized the lawyers for “exercise words.”

Luminar’s lawyers tried instead to get this information out of Russell but said their servers were similarly denied by his security team. They also claim that members of the security team lied about Russell’s presence at his Florida home.

“Can we try to serve Austin again today? We need someone to panic. They will avoid service as much as possible,” one of Weil’s attorneys wrote in an email on New Year’s Day. “In fact, he was at home when your man tried last time and the guard just lied to him.”