Court freezes assets tied to Faraday Future backer
A Shanghai court froze $182 million in assets tied to Jia Yueting, CEO of Chinese tech giant LeEco, after one of its affiliates missed loan payments, a Faraday Future spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
The New York Times had earlier reported the missed loan payments.
Faraday Future, an electric autonomous vehicle manufacturer slated to manufacture electric vehicles in North Las Vegas, told the Review-Journal in May that the company was seeking $1 billion in financing.
That financing was supposed to have been kicked off by an investment from Jia.
“We are aware that Jia Yueting’s equity has been frozen in China as a normal legal procedure to preserve the assets, as Yueting had undertaken personal guarantee to LeEco’s mobile phone business,” a Faraday spokesman said Wednesday. “This news has no impact on FF’s daily operations, aligns with FF’s immediate goals of diversifying FF’s investment sources and getting FF 91 on the road within 2018.”
The spokesman did not address whether Faraday has received Jia’s expected investment.
The company is continuing to speak with investors to raise more than $1 billion and is “in the process of executing the due-diligence necessary to do so,” the spokesman said.
Contact Nicole Raz at nraz@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @JournalistNikki on Twitter.
