Time runs out for embattled Chinese tycoon Jia Yueting as court freezes his Faraday Future assets
- A British Virgin Islands court rules in favour of To-Win Capital, allowing it to proceed with freezing Jia Yueting’s 33pc stake in Faraday Future
China’s heavily indebted businessman Jia Yueting is set to lose control of the electric car start-up Faraday Future, after a court in the British Virgin Islands ordered freezing his shareholding in the wannabe Tesla killer.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the BVI last week ruled in favour of Jia’s creditor, To-Win Capital, and allowed it to proceed with freezing his 33 per cent stake in Faraday Future controlled through his nominees and various layers of offshore holding companies.
The ruling vindicates an arbitration award given by the Beijing Arbitration Commission in favour of To-Win Capital against Jia in January.
“This is significant because it is the first known success by Jia Yueting’s creditors to freeze and enforce rulings against his assets outside China, particularly in the offshore jurisdictions,” said Shaun Wu, a partner at the law firm Kobre & Kim in Shanghai, which represents To-Win Capital.
“We know that many creditors are queuing at Jia’s gates to get their money back, but the domestic assets under Jia are mostly already frozen, and so we are setting out to seize his most important offshore assets, namely his shareholdings in Faraday Future held through BVI structures,” he added.
