Ulrich Kranz, the Apple car executive who served as the former CEO of the EV startup Canoo, is facing some legal trouble. On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Kranz and former Canoo chief financial officer Paul Balciunas over claims they provided “unreasonable revenue projections” to investors, as first reported by Bloomberg.
As outlined in the lawsuit, the SEC states that Kranz and Balciunas told investors Canoo would make $120 million in 2021 and $250 million in 2022. However, the SEC alleges that the pair “should have known that these projections were unreasonable” because the projects it used to calculate these amounts “were unlikely to materialize.” The SEC also claims that Kranz failed to disclose nearly $1 million in executive compensation.
As part of its suit, the SEC wants to prohibit Kranz and Balciunas from acting as “officers or directors” at public companies in the future. It’s also seeking to impose penalties on both of them. It’s not clear whether the SEC’s ban on Kranz serving as an officer or director would affect his position at Apple.
