Luminar founder Austin Russell agrees to subpoena in bankruptcy

Luminar founder and former CEO Austin Russell has agreed to subpoena his phone for information about the company as part of the lidar maker’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings for a new archiving Tuesday.

Russell now has seven days to file a motion to quash the subpoena or oppose it — otherwise he has 14 days to comply, according to the filing.

The settlement comes two weeks after Luminar’s lawyers accused Russell of avoiding a subpoena by turning away process servers at the gate of his Florida mansion. Russell had argued that he was reluctant to hand over his phone until he received assurances from Luminar that his personal information would be protected. Tuesday’s filing shows the two sides agreed to document the exact steps for how that information will be handled.

Luminar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December after losing major contracts with customers such as Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, as well as growing competition from lidar companies in China.

Luminar reached an agreement last week with a company called Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) to sell its lidar assets for $22 million. (Luminar is also trying to sell its semiconductor division to QCI for $110 million.) Luminar has scheduled an auction for later this month in an effort to solicit bids that might outbid QCI.

Russell tried to buy Luminar in October, months after he abruptly stepped down as CEO amid an ethics investigation, but before the company filed for bankruptcy. Representatives of his new venture, Russell AI Labs, told TechCrunch that it is still interested in bidding for Luminar’s lidar assets, but no formal offer has yet been made.

Luminar has been seeking information from Russell since his resignation as it decides whether to take legal action against him. The founder has already delivered several computers, but kept his phone due to privacy concerns. (Luminar initially claimed it was looking for two phones from Russell, one company-provided and one personal. Russell has since said in court records that he only had one phone during his time at Luminar.)