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By Jia Haonan
Source: Smart car reference (ID: AI4Auto)
The latest investigation results revealed that FF's fraud in the United States was finally exposed.
From the short report, the investigation initiated by the board of directors of FF Company not only disclosed the details of the fraud, but also fired several executives directly.
Jia Yueting himself was also cut in salary.
Last July, Faraday went public in the future. Jia Yueting said that "it is necessary" to return to China.
But now Jia Yueting can not return to his country, and even the United States may not be able to stay.
Who did FF cheat in America?
Just like in China, cheat investors.
In general, FF creates the appearance of normal operation and imminent delivery of the company through means, which makes investors believe that FF is seriously building cars.
At present, the investigation results officially disclosed by FF show that there are some inaccuracies in the IPO application previously submitted to the US securities regulatory authority.
For example, it is claimed that more than 14000 orders have been received for the first mass production vehicle, but only a few hundred of them are actually valid orders that have actually paid the deposit.
The rest of the 13000 odd orders were invalid, and the official did not explain where they came from.
You said that the user cheated boss Jia by not paying for the order? I don't believe it.
After Jia Yueting brought FF to the United States, in addition to turning former creditors into FF shareholders, he also stepped down from the top position of FF and served only as "chief product officer" behind the scenes.
However, the media and investigation institutions tend to believe that Jia Yueting is still the actual controller of FF.
In the latest investigation report, this is also more implicitly confirmed.
The survey admitted that the whole company "underestimated Jia Yueting's participation in the business"
Jia Yueting directly participated in the management of FF through his position in the shell company after the listing of SPAC.
How much should Jia Yueting participate? How much did you actually participate? The report didn't say clearly.
But behind this unusual wording, it reflects the collapse of Jia Yueting's credit in the United States.
When FF was listed, the short report of Meiqijin Investment pointed directly at Jia Yueting, thinking that FF was his way of making up for personal debt deficits.
A few months later, the FF officially admitted that Jia Yueting was "excessively involved", which is thought-provoking.
According to the survey, Brian Kronicki, the chairman of FF, took the main responsibility. He resigned as the chairman and only retained the members of the board of directors.
At the same time, Jarret Johnson, the vice president and general counsel, also left his post, and Wang Jia wei, another vice president, was suspended from his job without pay.
According to foreign media reports, Wang Jia wei is Jia Yueting's nephew. Jia Yueting once transferred all his FF equity to his nephew's name and appointed him as CFO, so as to avoid FF being investigated due to his own debt risk, and to actually control FF through "his own people".
As for Jia Yueting himself, he reduced his salary by 25% after this investigation and reported to Susan Swenson (the sole director of the board of directors), who was newly appointed as the chairman.
Why did the investigation start?
What kind of report did the FF Board of Directors start to investigate and restrict Jia Yueting's authority?
The accusation of inaccurate disclosure mentioned by FF in the official documents refers to a short report issued by J Capital Research, a short selling agency, in October this year.
In this 28 page report, Meiqijin Investment, based on the public information, counts several counts of FF.
To sum up, there are three points:
First, there is no capacity for mass production vehicles.
Second, the financial situation is worrying, and there is no end to financing.
Third, Lao Jia is unreliable.
First of all, the delivery time of FF91 has been skipped for several years. It was promised to build six factories in five locations in China and the United States, but so far this plan has not been implemented.
Moreover, the American Hanford factory that FF promised to restart and start production within 7 months has not made any substantial progress.
Financially, the listing has raised 1 billion yuan, but it is still a drop in the bucket. Meiqijin Investment said in the report that if FF wants to achieve the financial goal of 2024, it needs to raise $1.4 billion to achieve it.
With FF's business progress and Lao Jia's reputation, it may be more and more difficult to get money.
FF's latest share price closed at $4.22, down 7.46%, leaving a total market value of only $1.369 billion, nearly 70% less than the initial market value of about $4.5 billion, exceeding $3.1 billion (about 20 billion yuan).
In November last year, FF also received a delisting warning for failing to submit the financial report on time, and was required to make up within six months.
Half of the grace period has passed, and nothing has happened to FF.
Third, as mentioned earlier, Meiqijin Investment believes that Jia Yueting did not want to make a comeback when he moved FF to the United States, but then fooled American investors to fill their own financial black hole.
Lao Jia's next step?
This FF self inspection can't explain any problems.
FF said in the announcement that it has begun to take remedial measures, including hiring a third-party financial audit institution, strengthening the company's information disclosure, and providing compliance training for senior executives.
However, a little deeper, we can find that FF's own internal inventory points some problems, but only so far, and the remedial measures are not painful or itchy.
It seems that Jia Yueting's control of the company through his nephew has been eliminated, but Jia Yueting himself is still unaffected.
The core mass production and delivery of FF problem was not mentioned at all.
So is this investigation really the decision of the board of directors to make a clean sweep of the past, or is it a tough game played by Mr. Jia and all parties?
I can't say it yet.
It is hoped that in a few years, American investors will not hear the words "go to a meeting and return home next week".
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(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
