LeEco’s Jia stays in US chasing his electric car dream, leaving wife and brother to handle crumbling empire
Jia admits he has “paid full attention” to notice issued by Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau to return to China, but insists to ensure the delivery of the FF91 electric car he has to remain stateside
Jia Yueting, the troubled LeEco entrepreneur, is prolonging his stay in the US, after missing the deadline set by a city securities regulator which ordered him to return China before the end of 2017.
In a personal message sent Tuesday morning on his WeChat account, replying to an order made last week by the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau, Jia said he had asked his wife and younger brother to represent him handling regulatory questions on billions of debt back in China, but that he would “do everything he could to solve any debt problems with both the listed and unlisted companies”, from the US.
Lawyers say the authorities have limited power to force Jia to return China, although a growing list of creditors are desperately waiting to be paid.
“I have paid full attention to the notice issued by the regulator...but there is a lot of work that needs done (in the States), to guarantee volume production and to ensure the delivery of the FF91,” referring to a luxury electric vehicle (EV) that LeEco is developing with Faraday Future, a US-based tech company Jia controls.
Jia, who once famously claimed he was set to challenge Apple and Tesla with his disruptive business ecosystem.
