The co-founder and ex-CEO of the autonomous trucking venture, TuSimple, Xiaodi Hou, has called on a district court in California to enforce a temporary restriction to prevent the firm from moving its residual U.S. assets to China. This request is detailed in a recent legal document.

Hou has intentions of seeking a temporary restraining order in December at the forthcoming court session, with the aim of prohibiting TuSimple from relocating its cash reserves, valued in the tens of millions, to China. As of the end of Q3, TuSimple’s capital stood at an estimated $450 million. Apart from this, Hou is also seeking an accelerated evidence discovery process to support his motion request.

The statement given by Hou to the court this week, which was submitted on Monday, marks the latest development in the ongoing feud between TuSimple and several of its shareholders. The disagreement is centered around the company’s intention to use investor funds to establish a new business in China, focusing on AI-generated animation and video gaming.

In a first, Hou, who was removed from his position as CEO in 2022, has openly accused TuSimple and its management of diverting assets towards animation and gaming enterprises linked directly or indirectly to Mo Chen, the co-founder of TuSimple and present chairman of the board. According to Hou, this move was masked as a business shift. He also maintains that the company breached SEC regulations by not informing or obtaining approval from shareholders prior to altering its business model or transferring funds to China.

At present, Hou is leading a new autonomous trucking startup in Texas.

Post its 2021 IPO, TuSimple, which was once valued at a staggering $8.5 billion, confronted challenges that resulted in the closure of its U.S. operations and delisting in January 2024. The company had initially aimed to commercialize its AV technology in China. However, as the year unfolded, TuSimple downsized its workforce, halted self-driving operations, and began recruiting employees for roles related to AI gaming and animation.

In August, shareholders wrote to the board after discovering that TuSimple was allocating resources towards AI gaming and animation. The board responded a few weeks later by publicly announcing the new business division.

Recently, Hou called on the court to enforce a temporary restraining order after observing a filing by TuSimple China indicating the company was on the verge of transferring money out of the United States. According to public filings and Hou’s statement, two subsidiaries of TuSimple China registered a combined asset increase of $150 million last week.

Hou stated that such large cash transfers are “out of the ordinary” and can be compared to the peak operation period of TuSimple China when it had a large autonomous truck fleet in Shanghai and employed approximately 700 people. As of September, TuSimple China had about 200 employees.

Time is running out for shareholders like Hou who want TuSimple to liquidate so they can recover some of their losses.

While TuSimple delisted earlier this year, it is still registered with the SEC and is therefore subject to U.S. oversight. Once the money is transferred to China, U.S. shareholders will no longer be able to recover funds from their initial investment.

TechCrunch has approached the SEC to find out if the agency is investigating TuSimple regarding shareholder complaints.

As of now, TuSimple has not responded to TechCrunch’s request for a comment.