Faraday Future Dismisses Jia Yueting as Executive Officer

Beleaguered electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has taken further disciplinary actions recently, including the removal of founder Jia Yueting as an executive officer.

The firm stated in a regulatory document released on Thursday that Jia will continue to serve as the chief product officer and will report to the executive chairman. However, his role will be limited to focusing on products, mobile ecosystems, internet-related fields, artificial intelligence and R&D technologies.

Faraday Future was established in May 2014 and listed on the Nasdaq through SPAC on July 22, 2021. Since then, it has fallen into various controversies starting with a report by short seller J Capital, alleging that the EV maker had made many inaccurate statements. Subsequently, an internal review conducted by a special committee of directors has been developing in the midst of negative public opinion caused by its continuous delay in submitting financial reports.

In February of this year, the company found that it had issued some inaccurate statements to investors and had exaggerated the number of bookings for its upcoming vehicle, the FF 91. A subsequent survey found that only a few hundred of the 14,000 FF 91 orders had actually been paid. To this end, the company cut the basic salary of CEO Carsten Breitfield and Jia Yueting by 25%.

SEE ALSO: Core Executive of Faraday Future Jerry Wang Quits

At present, it is unclear whether the investigation’s end will let the company file its 2021 annual report on time so that it can comply with Nasdaq regulations without the risk of getting delisted.