A federal lawsuit that thrust one of Pocatello’s largest employers into court-ordered receivership appears to be nearing its end — at least in legal terms.

But for the hundreds of LA Semiconductor workers who punch in each day at the wafer fabrication facility on Buckskin Road, and for the city officials who’ve spent months lobbying on the plant’s behalf — including a recent trip to Taiwan and closed-door sessions with county commissioners — the most consequential questions remain unanswered.

All parties in the case of LA Semiconductor vs. Semiconductor Components Industries filed a joint motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Monday asking Chief Judge Sara Lioi to approve a settlement agreement, attaching a proposed agreed order for her signature.

If approved, the order would formally end more than 14 months of litigation and receivership management of the Pocatello semiconductor plant — signaling the end of an aggressive effort to find a buyer for the local facility.

What the proposed settlement does not answer — at least not publicly — is whether anyone has actually bought the facility.

The lawsuit and the receivership

The legal battle began in December 2024, when Semiconductor Components Industries, the global chipmaker now rebranded as onsemi, filed suit alleging breach of contract, fraud and negligent misrepresentation. Onsemi had sold the Pocatello fab to LA Semiconductor, or LAS, in October 2022 for $80 million. It claimed LAS — an Ohio limited liability company solely owned by founder Mike Ward — quickly became insolvent, defaulted on multiple agreements and produced fraudulent financial statements.

Judge Lioi wasted little time.

On Dec. 21, 2024, she appointed FTI Consulting Inc. as receiver, granting the firm exclusive custody and control of LAS and all its assets. FTI, led by Dr. Brian Kushner, Nicole Horton and Managing Director Carl Jenkins — the latter of whom has maintained an extensive on-site presence in Pocatello — immediately took over day-to-day operations of the fab.

For the next 14 months, onsemi effectively bankrolled the plant’s survival. Court records filed Friday show onsemi provided more than $40.6 million in total funding to LAS during the receivership. Without that lifeline, the plant — which employs nearly 350 workers and has operated as a semiconductor foundry in some form since 1970 — would almost certainly have shuttered.

The sale process: Bids in, outcome unknown

With court authorization in August 2025, FTI retained Macquarie Semiconductor & Technology Inc. as the exclusive remarketing agent to find a buyer for Pocatello’s LAS plant. Macquarie Semiconductor & Technology Inc. — a separate entity from Macquarie Equipment Capital Inc., which had already obtained a federal judgment against LAS seeking damages exceeding $174 million for unpaid equipment leases — set a sealed bid deadline that was ultimately extended to Jan. 16, 2026.

Court records and interviews confirm bids were received. Whether any resulted in a transaction remains one of the central unanswered questions.

Notably, the remarketing engagement explicitly excluded onsemi, VIT Semicons Park, Commvault and Skyworks as potential buyers — a detail suggesting the field of eligible bidders was deliberately narrowed before the process concluded.

Evergreen Advantage, the secured lender that provided acquisition financing to LAS in 2022 to buy the Pocatello plant — a loan that has grown from $32.5 million to $37.5 million and been amended at least 14 times — received multiple extensions during the receivership, most recently through Feb. 1, 2026. What Evergreen recovers on that mortgage, and whether the real property securing it has transferred to a new owner, is not disclosed in court records.

What the settlement actually says — and doesn’t

The settlement’s primary terms, as summarized in the joint motion, include payments by LAS through its insurer and by Ward personally via a promissory note secured by mortgages on certain real property, the permanent appointment of FTI as receiver over LAS, and mutual releases among the parties.

The settlement agreement itself is sealed. The parties invoked a confidentiality clause to keep its full terms from public view, submitting it to the court under seal for judicial inspection only. The financial terms — how much onsemi recovers on claims it valued at more than $35 million, what Ward pays and, critically, any terms governing the plant’s future ownership or operation — are not available to the public.

The settlement does not, on its face, announce a sale — but it doesn’t rule one out. The permanent appointment of FTI as receiver over LAS could suggest an ongoing process: possibly a transaction still being finalized, or a wind-down being managed with greater legal certainty now that litigation has concluded.

A recent letter from the Idaho Department of Labor to all 342 plant employees advising them of a potential April layoff caused significant alarm in the local community.

What happens to the plant’s process design kits and intellectual property — assets identified throughout the receivership as critical to independent operations and a key sticking point in negotiations — is entirely unaddressed in public filings. Process design kits, or PDKs, are files, models and data provided by semiconductor foundries to designers, serving as a critical bridge between circuit design and manufacturing.

Local leaders fighting hard, but largely from the sidelines The effort to save the Pocatello plant extends well beyond the courtroom. Local officials have been scrambling for months to attract a buyer, even as legal constraints limit what they can say or do publicly.

MiaCate Kennedy I, CEO of Portneuf Valley Development Corporation, said in a Thursday interview with the Idaho State Journal that her organization has been working to support LA Semiconductor for more than 18 months.

In January, she briefed the Bannock County Commission on the situation. The commission quickly moved into executive session to discuss incentives for any potential buyer that might make Pocatello competitive with Arizona — a premier leader in the U.S. semiconductor industry often referred to as “America’s Semiconductor HQ” or the “Silicon Desert.”

Kennedy and Bannock County Commission Chair Jeff Hough traveled to Taiwan in December with the Idaho Department of Commerce and the Boise Valley Economic Development Partnership, meeting with major semiconductor manufacturers to market Pocatello’s workforce and culture. Kennedy described encounters with industry leaders at the highest levels — owners, presidents, vice presidents and more — people she said most Americans never get the opportunity to address.

The mission was complicated.

The receivership’s marketing team, working under confidentiality agreements and competing bidder dynamics, instructed the local delegation not to explicitly say they were looking for a buyer. Kennedy described walking a careful line — marketing the plant and its workforce without crossing into territory that could jeopardize Macquarie Semiconductor & Technology Inc.’s own remarketing process.

“We can’t even say that we tried,” Kennedy told the Journal while discussing the restrictions placed on her team.

Whether those efforts made a difference remains an open question. Kennedy said that shortly after the Taiwan trip, potential buyers emerged. She stopped short of claiming credit but did not deny a connection. Hough was similarly cautious in a separate Thursday interview when describing the delegation’s interactions with potential suitors.

“I am confident the Pocatello plant will be sold,” Hough said. “But, I am hopeful it will remain a functioning, viable part of our economic community.”

Whether the Pocatello facility — spanning more than 554,000 square feet — will be sold as a functioning chip plant maintaining hundreds of local jobs, as a transfer of intellectual property, or parted out and converted to another use entirely remains unknown.

Former Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad, whose term ended in January, wrote a letter in October 2025 expressing the city’s strong support for any potential successor, touting Pocatello’s commitment to infrastructure development, public-private partnerships and economic development incentives.

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Current Pocatello Mayor Mark Dahlquist has been more publicly visible in the process’ final weeks. After a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN Act, notice went out to LAS employees earlier this month — a federal regulatory requirement triggered by the receivership — Dahlquist moved quickly to tamp down alarm. He contacted LAS officials directly, was told the letter was a legal formality and told constituents he was “cautiously optimistic” that a buyer would be found for Pocatello’s LAS plant. He said multiple companies had expressed serious interest.

What Dahlquist knows — and what he has been advised not to say — is itself a story. Kennedy confirmed that local officials had been asked to stay silent about specific companies and negotiations, and that even the mayor’s public comments were carefully calibrated. Asked directly whether she was optimistic, Kennedy gave perhaps the most candid answer of the day.

“I just feel like, I’m just, I think whatever hits us could potentially be super good,” she said. “But if it isn’t, we’re also looking at things that could potentially be OK.”

What happens next — and what remains unknown

The WARN notice FTI’s Jenkins filed with the Idaho Department of Labor on Feb. 9 anticipated a potential layoff of all LAS Pocatello plant employees on or around April 10, 2026 — contingent on the failure to find a buyer for the plant. That deadline is roughly seven weeks away.

The Journal has several questions it has been unable to answer from available public records.

Has the plant already been sold, and if so, to whom? The sealed settlement and the absence of any public announcement leave this unanswered. Local officials with knowledge of active negotiations have been instructed not to disclose details.

What happens to the employees? If a buyer has been secured, the 342 workers listed in the WARN notice may see continuity but face a transition period — possibly losing their jobs temporarily before being rehired. Kennedy noted any new owner would likely rehire the same workforce given how rare semiconductor-experienced workers are. If no buyer materializes, the April 10 layoff date stands. Even if the plant is purchased, employees could still lose their jobs if new owners decide to liquidate and move on.

What do FTI, Macquarie Equipment Capital and Evergreen recover? FTI’s fees through January 2026 have reached approximately $3 million, with its Cleveland law firm Tucker Ellis LLP billing separately. Macquarie Equipment Capital holds a judgment exceeding $174 million. Evergreen is owed on a mortgage amended 14 times. Whether each is made whole, partially satisfied or negotiated down is unknown.

What becomes of the PDKs and intellectual property? Throughout the receivership, access to process design kits and IP was identified as essential for independent operation of the fab. Whether a buyer would inherit or independently develop those assets could determine the foundry’s long-term viability.

The fab at 2300 Buckskin Road has been making semiconductor wafers in Pocatello since 1970. The current building went up in 1997. It has outlasted multiple owners, a global financial crisis, supply chain disruptions, a pandemic and now a prolonged legal battle that nearly ended its independent existence. Whether it survives under new ownership — or whether the equipment gets auctioned and the cleanrooms go dark — is a question Pocatello’s workers are waiting to have answered.

The story, for this community, is not over.

Editor’s note: The Idaho State Journal requested comment from Mike Ward and attorneys representing FTI Consulting, LA Semiconductor and Evergreen Advantage and did not receive responses.

Co-general manager of LA Semiconductor Pat Sedlmayer, FTI Consulting Managing Director Carl Jenkins and onsemi’s Akron attorney Nicholas P. Capotosto of Dinsmore & Shohl declined to comment when contacted.

The settlement agreement filed in Case No. 5:24-cv-2215 remains under seal by court order. Additional reporting is ongoing.