Onyx Motorbikes, a promising e-bike startup, was already facing significant challenges when its situation took a tragic turn. The company’s owner and CEO, James Khatiblou, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 37, leaving the future of Onyx in limbo.
Khatiblou was grappling with a series of issues at Onyx. The company was being evicted from its warehouse in El Segundo, Los Angeles, and unpaid bills were piling up. The chief operating officer had resigned abruptly, and a shipment of around 100 CTY2 dirt bikes from Chinese supplier Suzhou Jindao was delayed. Customers were demanding refunds, a major problem considering Khatiblou already owed a significant amount of money to lenders and shareholders.
Khatiblou’s health was deteriorating, and he was having trouble breathing and even walking. His death, caused by a pulmonary embolism with deep vein thrombosis as a secondary cause, added a new layer of uncertainty to Onyx’s future. Khatiblou left behind no will and no succession plan, only millions of dollars in debt and questions from staff, creditors, and customers about how to proceed when the sole owner of a company dies.
Today, no one owns Onyx Motorbikes, which means all operations have ground to a halt. Oxygen Funding, an Orange County-based creditor to which Onyx owes around $2.2 million, is petitioning the Los Angeles County probate court to become the administrator of Khatiblou’s estate. However, a legal battle is raging over who controls Onyx’s remaining assets and who gets to be made whole first.
Read more: techcrunch.com