Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future paid about $7.5 million in 2025 to a company controlled by its founder Jia Yueting, which was disclosed in the company's latest regulatory filing. The long-troubled electric vehicle company delivered only four complete vehicles and lost nearly $400 million in the same year it paid the above-mentioned fees. It has now turned to selling low-priced vans and robot products imported from China.
When these transactions occurred, Faraday Future was still under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One of the focuses of the investigation was "related party transactions" between the company and entities controlled or related to Jia Yueting. The SEC is also examining whether Faraday Future truthfully disclosed the extent of Jia Yueting's actual control over the company when it went public through SPAC in 2021, and whether the company made false statements about early electric vehicle sales in 2023.
In March this year, the four-year investigation was terminated by the SEC, although last year, the SEC issued notices to Faraday Future, Jia Yueting and other executives, saying that law enforcement officials had recommended taking enforcement action against them. The end of the investigation comes amid an overall decline in U.S. enforcement of white-collar crime during the second Trump administration.
According to Faraday Future's annual shareholder proxy filing released Thursday, the company made various payments to an entity called FF Global Partners LLC, including a $100,000 monthly "consulting fee," a $2 million "bonus" and $1.7 million to repay the company's loan to Faraday Future. The document did not explain the use of the remaining approximately $2.6 million. Faraday Future did not respond to requests for comment on related issues.
Faraday Future described FF Global as a "related party" of Jia Yueting in the document, and said in previous documents that Jia has "significant influence" on the company. FF Global has five "voting managers", one of whom is Jia Yueting, and other members include his business partners and a family member - his nephew Jerry Wang.
Documents show that Wang Jiarui currently serves as the president of Faraday Future and receives a six-digit annual salary from FF Global. His wife serves as the head of FF Global’s legal department and also receives a six-digit income. FF Global has also signed a similar "consulting agreement" with AIXC, a cryptocurrency holding company operated by Wang Jiarui and served as an advisor by Jia Yueting, and the law firm where Wang's wife works also provides legal consulting services to AIXC.
FF Global itself is also an important shareholder of Faraday Future, and together with Jia Yueting, controls almost every aspect of the company's operations, so much so that Faraday Future listed this as a risk factor in its recent annual report. The company wrote in its annual report that Jia Yueting and his influential FF Global "have control over our management, business and operations and may use this control in a manner that is inconsistent with our business or financial objectives and strategies, or otherwise inconsistent with our interests."
FF Global also played a key role in Jia Yueting's "return to power" after Faraday Future went public. In 2021, after Faraday Future entered the capital market through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the newly formed board of directors of the listed company immediately launched an internal investigation into Jia Yueting's capital operations inside and outside the company, as well as the disclosure of relevant transactions and control rights during the merger and acquisition process. In early 2022, after discovering that the company's public statement about Jia Yueting's control was misleading, the board of directors marginalized him and handed over the investigation results to the SEC, which immediately formally opened an investigation.
At the same time, FF Global will continue to put pressure on the board of directors throughout 2022, trying to replace some directors with more "friendly" candidates. This movement once escalated to the point where several directors received death threats, and some directors eventually chose to resign due to "fear for their personal safety." Following this process, Jia Yueting returned to management last year, was appointed co-CEO, and has now become the sole CEO of Faraday Future.
FF Global is not the only Jia Yueting-related entity that Faraday Future has paid or plans to pay. The company disclosed in agency documents that it also paid US$700,000 to a loan company associated with Jia last year and still owes approximately US$8.5 million to Leshi Information Technology Co. Ltd., an affiliate of the LeTV system, which was classified as "advertising services" expenses.