For most questions, Jia Yueting’s answer was “I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Editor’s note: This article comes from Tencent News “Perspective “, author Ji Zhenyu.
The disagreement between Jia Yueting and creditors over the debt restructuring plan is likely to become a protracted tug of war.
On the 6th, Jia Yueting appeared as a debtor at a creditor’s meeting in a Delaware court in the United States. At this time, nearly two months had passed since he submitted his bankruptcy reorganization application on October 14. The conduct of the first creditors’ meeting also means that the case has begun formal legal proceedings.
Tencent News “Perspective” exclusively participated in the whole process of the conference. During this nearly four-hour meeting, the debt restructuring custodian, debtor and creditors conducted direct multiple rounds of Q & A on important information such as asset ownership, authenticity, and actual value involved in the restructuring process. And dialogue.
In the US bankruptcy and reorganization case, the Meeting of Creditors is a mandatory process and is not a court hearing or hearing in nature.
In general, although the name is “Creditors’ Meeting”, the main participants of the meeting are the US Trustee and the debtor, and creditors can participate voluntarily according to their own circumstances.
U.S. Custodian is a government agency under the U.S. Department of Justice that supervises bankruptcy and private sector custodians. The creditor’s meeting is hosted by the custodian. It usually takes about 30-45 days after the debtor submits an application for bankruptcy. Jia Yueting submitted an application for bankruptcy on October 14 this year and a creditor’s meeting on December 6. The interval is more than 45 days. Due to the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States at the end of November.
The specific location of the creditors’ meeting that Jia Yueting attended that day is located in the custodian office in the federal building of Wilmington, Delaware, across the street from the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. The trustee’s office belongs to the third jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, which covers the states of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
(The first Jia Yueting hosted by an American hostDebt Restructuring Creditors Meeting Held in Delaware Federal Court)
According to requirements, the debtor must attend the creditors’ meeting, and must carry a photo ID, a US Social Security Number, and a market value analysis document of the property they own.
In most cases, the creditor’s meeting is a procedural meeting. The main purpose is to verify the identity of the debtor and the accuracy of the bankruptcy information submitted before. .
Although the custodian itself does not have the right to sue, it has the legal responsibility to provide the US Prosecutors with any information that the debtor may potentially violate bankruptcy laws. The entire creditor meeting will not take more than 10 minutes from checking the debtor’s information to completing all the questions and answers. In most cases, the debtor only needs to answer Yes or No (yes or no)
But because the debtor Jia Yueting’s bankruptcy and reorganization case involved complex assets and transaction structures and a lot of information, the entire meeting far exceeded the average creditors’ meeting. The number of participants in the meeting on the day was about 20 people. There are almost 10 accompanying persons, and the rest are represented by lawyers of some creditors. The entire meeting lasted from 10 am to nearly 2 pm, with only a 5-minute break in the middle, and the entire process took nearly 4 hours.
The meeting mainly focused on the information disclosed by Jia Yueting about personal assets submitted to the court. The custodian asked questions and the debtors answered in a manner to confirm the authenticity and accuracy of the assets. Or deliberately conceal issues.
At about 9:40 am on the same day, Jia Yueting passed the security check of the court and entered the conference hall on the third floor. After a brief communication with the custodian, the meeting was officially held at 10 am. They are all true, otherwise they will be punished accordingly.
(Jia Yueting prepares before the meeting)
Throughout the conference, the main questions of the custodian tried to clarify the asset ownership relationship between Jia Yueting’s individual and the FF and other entities in which he held equity, as well as the flow of specific expenses.
For most questions, Jia Yueting ’s answer is “I do n’t know, I do n’t know”. He needs to have his team follow up and supplement the materials. Jia Yueting also cannot hear about the ownership and ownership of some assets.The first time after the question is to give a direct and clear answer, and you can only respond with an ambiguous “don’t remember clearly, and then my team will provide the corresponding materials”.
The custodian asks: “How can a car company that has not yet been sold be worth $ 3 billion?” And then asked whether this valuation was assessed by a third party
Jia Yueting replied that this was the pre-investment valuation of Evergrande during the cooperation with Evergrande. When the custodian requested corresponding supporting documents, Jia Yueting’s lawyer refused to provide it with a confidentiality agreement with Evergrande.
As for Jia Yueting’s current villa residence, the custodian also questioned: “Why are you going to live in three separate houses in bankruptcy proceedings?”
Jia Yueting replied that the current residence is used on the one hand for FF operations and the other is a “means of attracting talents”. He said that some of the residences will provide short-term residence for domestic executives who come to the United States for business trips.
According to Jia Yueting’s bankruptcy and reorganization documents, he sold Oceanview’s residence and leased it back, but at the same time sublet the house to obtain rental income, but the custodian questioned this because the income was not reflected in Jia Yueting Disclosed in 4 personal bank accounts.
The custodian also questioned Jia Yueting’s personal living expenses and company expenses, because the personal bank account provided by Jia Yueting for the past 6 months did not have any transaction records related to daily life. Who gave the daily living expenses? ”Jia Yueting said, the daily living expenses are handled by his own team, and he is not clear. The custodian will further ask if it is not from your personal bank account. Accounts to spend, who belongs to this account?
“Everyone here wants someone to pay their bills,” said the custodian, drawing laughter on the floor.
On this issue, Jia Yueting still said he was unclear, saying that his team was responsible for taking care of it. In response, Jia Yueting’s lawyer team explained that Jia Yueting’s daily expenses are expenses related to the company’s business, so they are paid through a company account in the form of reimbursement.
After the custodian’s question is over, the creditor’s lawyer at the scene raises a question. Laotian’s attorney questioned why the creditors’ meeting held by FF’s headquarters on November 25 did not receive an invitation. Jia Yueting explained that because the actual controller of Laotian was Tao Yun Capital, and the relationship between FF and Tao Yun Capital Financial legal disputes have not yet been resolved, so Jia Yueting personally and the team did not consider it appropriate to invite.
The lawyer representing Shanghai Qicheng Investment disputes the current debt restructuring plan proposed by Jia Yueting. He believes that Jia Yueting still has a large number of assets that have not been truthfully disclosed, and only plans to put FF equity that cannot be accurately valued into a debt service trust. In this regard, Jia Yueting said that the bankruptcy reorganization only involved assets in the United States, and had nothing to do with its assets in China.The most important part of US assets is FF’s equity, which is also the main source of assets he plans to use to repay debt.
According to the information disclosed by Jia Yueting, Qicheng’s debt amount is 90 million US dollars, but Qicheng told Tencent News “Wangwang” that the actual debt amount should be 100 million US dollars.
Jia Yueting gave a nearly two-minute speech to the creditor lawyers present before the meeting that day. He said that he once again apologized to creditors and caused troubles to creditors because of his debt crisis. He emphasized that he hoped that creditors would support his plan, so that FF91, FF’s first electric vehicle product, could be successfully mass-produced as soon as possible and landed in the Chinese market.
“FF91 is the only product in the world that can surpass Tesla’s Model S. It is unique. I hope all creditors will work with us to promote the implementation of the project.” Jia Yueting said.
Prior to this formal creditor meeting, Jia Yueting held a creditor meeting at FF’s Los Angeles headquarters on November 25 in order to further communicate with creditors and promote their debt restructuring plan. According to Tencent News “Perspective” who went to the scene at the time, a total of 35 people came to the meeting, most of which were lawyers or financial representatives of domestic creditors. It took more than 6 hours for this At the meeting, no directional agreement was reached between creditors and debtors, and between creditors.