Khosla Wants Receiver Named for Columbus KiOR

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – KiOR financier Vinod Khosla is asking a Mississippi state court judge to name a receiver for the company’s Columbus plant, at the same time that he’s accusing the state of scaring off a potential buyer for the shuttered biofuel refinery.

Companies controlled by Khosla filed the motion Friday in Lowndes County Chancery Court, another escalation in a fight between the billionaire venture capitalist and the state of Mississippi.

A hearing Jan. 27 hearing is set on the matter. In a Sunday letter to Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director Brent Christensen, Khosla accuses Mississippi of grandstanding and intransigence.

The state wants to push Texas-based parent company of KiOR, which filed for bankruptcy reorganization, into liquidation. That could stop a new Khosla company from buying KiOR’s assets and continuing its biofuel research.