Lightning eMotors SPAC Deal Insiders Allegedly Harmed Company

Electric vehicle maker Lightning eMotors Inc. has lost much of its value and faces mounting costs because of board members and officers’ misrepresentations before and after it went public in a merger with a blank-check company, investors allege.

Several insiders involved with the pre-merger special purpose acquisition company had enormous financial incentives to complete the deal, shareholders Denish Bhavsar and Samhita Gera say on behalf of Lightning. The investors filed their derivative suit Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Colorado.

Those incentives allegedly led the SPAC company’s founding investors and managers to overstate the electric drivetrain ...