Jia Yueting

Yueting was the owner of former Singapore-listed company Sinotel Technologies.[12] Before the privatization of the company, Jia Yueting owned 26% of its shares.[13] Sinotel Technologies was the parent company of Xbell Union Communication and second-tier subsidiaries Shanxi Xbell Communication (Chinese: 山西西贝尔通信科技).[13] A subsidiary, Xbell Investment, was sold by Sinotel Technologies to LeEco (Leshi Holdings (Beijing)), another company owned by Jia Yueting.[13]

Jia founded Le.com and later LeEco (Leshi Holding Beijing). In 2015, he purchased Coolpad Group from Guo Deying via Lele Holding and intermediate holding company LeEco Global.[14]

In July 2017, he resigned as the chairman and CEO of Le.com. He was replaced by Sun Hongbin, chairman of the second largest shareholder of Le.com, Sunac China. Le.com general manager Liang Jun and Le Vision Pictures chairman and CEO Zhang Zhao were also elected onto the board.

On December 25, 2017, the Beijing Bureau of China Securities Regulatory Commission publicly ordered Jia to return to China to take his responsibility as the controlling shareholder of Le.com.[15] Jia refused to return, sending his wife instead to solve the financial issues, which sparked criticism from the Chinese government and the online community.[16] Jia had sold part of the share of Le.com and lend the same amount of money he received to the listed company, which he made a written agreement with the company for the loan. However, the loan was not renewed, making the financial troubles of the company even worse.[17]

Jia Yueting's involvement with Lucid Motors started in 2014, when LeEco, along with other investors, invested $100 million into Atieva (Lucid Motors's former name)[18]. In April 2016, Jia Yueting used money he previously borrowed in China[19] to purchase a stake of over 20 percent in Lucid Motors[18], a direct competitor of Faraday Future. The move was characterized by some industry observers as "a destructive strategy", with people pointing out that Jia Yueting actually did not want Lucid Motors to succeed.[19]

As of February 2019, Jia Yueting still owns a large stake in Lucid Motors.[20]

Jia is a co-founder of Faraday Future. At the end of 2017, he became the CEO of the company, moving to California to perform his duties.[3] He then sold the majority stake of Faraday Future to Evergrande Health, a subsidiary of Evergrande Group while remaining as the CEO of the company.[21] He later sued Evergrande for withholding promised payments but reached an agreement to settle the litigation, after which Evergrande restructured its US$2 billion investment for a 32% stake.[22][23].

On July 5, 2017, Jia Yueting moved to Los Angeles, claiming that his trip to the US was due to the related financial affairs of Faraday Future.[24].

The first pre-production FF 91 model from Faraday Future has rolled off the line at the company's facility in Hanford, California on August 28, 2018. Jia tweeted that this is the "new species" of electric vehicle.[25]

In 2017, a court in Shanghai issued a freezing order on 1.2 billion renminbi worth of Jia Yueting's assets in China.[26] After leaving China, Yueting spent at least US$21 million on beach houses and properties in California.[27][28]

He has been dubbed by some English media outlets as "China's Steve Jobs", although lately it has been used to showcase the overexpansion of his technology companies.[29] Yueting has been dubbed by some Chinese media outlets as a "PowerPoint CEO".[30], a reference to his long history of repetitively announcing vaporwares.[31]

In December 2017, Jia was named to China's debt blacklist after he violated a court order by refusing to return to China to pay up more than 470 million RMB that he owed to Ping An Group.[32][33][34][3]

In late 2018, courts in both British Virgin Islands and California, enforced freezing of Jia's assets, including his ownership stake in Faraday Future and the properties he owned in California.[35][36]

In January 2019, Shimao Gongsan, a major shopping complex owned by Jia Yueting in Beijing’s Sanlitun area, failed to be sold in an online auction.[37]

In October 2019, Jia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware, US.[7] Yueting owed billions of dollars to more than 100 creditors in China.[38]

In December 2019, the Department of Justice accused Jia of engaging in dishonest behavior during the bankruptcy and filed a motion to have a new bankruptcy trustee appointed. The Office of the US Trustee criticized Jia and said that in general they had found him to be untrustworthy during their dealings with him.[38]

On May 21, 2020 the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California entered an order officially confirming the chapter 11 reorganization plan (the “Plan”) for Faraday Future (FF)'s founder and Chief Product and User-Eco officer (CPUO), YT Jia.[39]