Lux Optics co-founder Sebastian de With made headlines when he joined Apple in late January. The company was behind Halide, one of the most popular photography apps for the iPhone, which gained popularity for its robust pro-level controls.
Apparently Apple was such a big fan that it tried to acquire the developer last summer. Those negotiations never came to fruition and the company eventually hired De With. At the time, it was widely believed that Apple had poached it from Lux. But new allegations in a lawsuit filed by co-founder Ben Sandofsky in California Superior Court in Santa Cruz claim De With was fired for financial misconduct in December 2025.
according to InformationThe lawsuit accuses De With of “improperly using more than $150,000 in Lux corporate funds to pay for personal expenses” as well as “taking Lux source code and confidential material with him when he joined Apple.”
An attorney for de With denied those claims and said that “the effort to involve Apple in this dispute appears to be an attempt to gain leverage and attract attention.”
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