2007 - Metropolis, Kansas
Lex Luthor managed to escape from prison. One of the first things he did was head to Cadmus Labs to oversee his closing projects such as Project Gemini. He wanted to alter his visual appearance so he could assume a new identity, considering the evidence against his murder attempt of his father was pretty solid. Little did he know, Lionel Luthor shuttered his cloning projects and destroyed the research. Lionel found Grant Gabriel aka Julian Luthor (a clone Lex made of Julian, his little brother). They have established a relationship very unlike the one that Lex and Lionel had.
Lex was furious his cloning technology was no longer available, but he did manage to scrounge up some funds to change his face like Morgan Edge did to escape his troubles. His new persona had a hair transplant.
Lex attempted to use his hidden financial resources to buy the Daily Planet under his new identity Alexander Cross (part of his new plan to shape public opinion to hype up his new identity and also get close to Clark Kent and Lois Lane in revenge), but the new owners refused to sell. Lex wasn't aware that Kent Farms had purchased the Daily Planet under a new subsidiary after their new valuation making Kent Farms the number one agricultural company/food producer in the United States. While a media company does not fit within the frame of agriculture, nobody said an agricultural company couldn't establish subsidiaries that deal in other fields of business. Their approach was to keep a "hands off" approach. The buyout was to prevent people like the Luthors from buying the Daily Planet for their insidious agenda.
When Lex went to scrounge up the rest of his money, he found that all of his accounts were emptied. He did not know that Kelex had seized nearly everything from Lex when he went to prison. I figured that being rich, along with his intelligence, was Lex Luthor's superpower. What would he do if he lost all of his money? Sure, he could still pose a problem. But as an escaped criminal with no liquid assets under a newly established identity with no clout? Good luck, Lex.