(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a probe into electric vehicle maker Workhorse Group Inc, an early investor in Lordstown Motors Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The securities regulator disclosed in a letter that its enforcement division had been investigating Workhorse, the report said https://on.wsj.com/3DCKBOk, adding that the letter did not mention what the probe was about and did not offer any further details.
Workhorse and the SEC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Workhorse in June challenged a decision by the U.S. Postal Service earlier this year to award a multi-billion-dollar, 10-year contract to Oshkosh Defense to manufacture a new generation of postal delivery vehicles.
Lordstown months ago announced the sudden departure of its founder and former top boss Steve Burns after an internal investigation into short-seller Hindenburg Research’s claims that the startup overstated the viability of its technology and misled investors about production plans.
Burns was also the former CEO of Workhorse.
Lordstown has also faced scrutiny from federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the SEC regarding its merger with a blank-check company and previously made statements about preorders for its vehicles.
The SEC and U.S. prosecutors in July charged Trevor Milton, the former CEO of EV firm Nikola Corp, with defrauding investors by lying to them about the company.
(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Ben Klayman; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Aditya Soni)
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