Scandal-hit electric vehicle (EV) company Faraday Future Intelligent Electric said on Tuesday it appointed Becky Roof as interim chief financial officer as the company seeks to recover from damaging allegations.
Roof, who serves as managing director with consulting firm AlixPartners, will replace Walter McBride, who stepped down due to health reasons, the company said in a statement.
McBride was appointed as CFO in November 2021. Faraday went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in July 2021.
Last month, Faraday said it had identified certain inaccurate statements made by its employees to investors and announced changes in its leadership structure.
Faraday said it had appointed Susan Swenson, currently an independent member of its board, to the newly created position of executive chairperson of the company.
The company said CEO Carsten Breitfield and Chinese founder Jia Yueting would both be handed a 25% cut each in their annual base salary. Both Breitfield and Jia would report to Swenson.
AlixPartners has been appointed to accelerate implementation of recommendations following allegations of inaccurate disclosures, including claims made by short-seller J Capital.
‘Bucket to Collect Money’
“We don’t think Faraday Future, an EV SPAC, will ever sell a car,” J Capital wrote in its October 2021 report. “So far, it’s nothing but a bucket to collect money from US investors and pour it into the black hole of debt created by [Jia].”
The short-seller had called Faraday “a new EV scam in town”.
On Tuesday, Faraday said statements made by some of its employees to certain investors describing Jia’s role within the company were inaccurate.
His involvement in the company’s management since its merger with blank-cheque firm Property Solutions Acquisition “was more significant than what had been represented”.
EV startup Lordstown had announced a similar move following the exit of its CEO and CFO in June 2021.
Roof had served as interim finance chief of Lordstown Motors Corp from June 2021 until she was succeeded by Adam Kroll in October 2021.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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