Beleagured EV start Faraday Future has allegedly lied about its sales records. Two internal whistleblowers at the company revealed how the company has been cooking up sales figures. They also claim in a lawsuit the company founder has been using the HR department to silence employees who try to expose the deceit, Techcrunch reports.
Faraday Future has not sold a lot of EVs, but the sales figures it publishes are not to be believed, according to two former employees turn whistleblowers. Jose Guerrero and Victoria Xie are independently suing the company, its founder, Jia Yueting, and the head of HR, Nan Yang. The pair are claiming wrongful termination, causing them emotional distress.
The two lawsuits claim Jia continues to influence the company through a shadow organization even though he was booted out after an internal probe.
In a letter to the company’s general counsel in December 2023, Guerrero and Xie alleged that the first four of the meager FF91 SUV sales were made up, with three cars never paid for fully. The fourth payment dragged on for over two months from the day it was announced.
When staff tried to push back against the misleading sales claims, they were allegedly reminded Future Faraday needed to shore up its share price by announcing sales.
Future Faraday claimed to have sold 10 cars in 2023.
Xie claims she was dismissed in retaliation just two days after sending in the letter. Guerrero survived till the middle of January before being fired. Both tried the arbitration route, but Future Faraday failed to pay the fees, allowing them to drag the company to the Superior Court.
This is not the best of times for the cash-strapped company that has had rounds of layoffs and furloughs in a bid to save on cash. It nearly lost its main offices after falling behind on the rent. The company is also under investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.
Jia, however, has denied any wrongdoing in a statement to Techcrunch.
