Fisker: SEC trouble, abandoned assets & trapped data
FOR failed carmaker Fisker, the past week has been a hell of a year. On October 4, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed through a court filing that it has begun an investigation into potential violations of America’s federal securities laws.
This revelation follows Fisker’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy nearly four months ago, but its efforts to finalise a liquidation settlement with creditors has run into a roadblock: According to the SEC, the proposed settlement includes little acknowledgment of the Commission’s right to pursue parties relevant to its investigations, or any mention of how it will preserve corporate records as required by law.
CATCH UP: Fisker files for bankruptcy
The following day, technology website TechCrunch published photos that had been included with the SEC’s filing, submitted by a representative of the firm that had leased Fisker its final, less glamorous headquarters.
The representative wrote that, having been asked if all Fisker property would be removed before the property was turned over to its owners, the auction house responsible for selling off the carmaker’s assets had confirmed it was not obliged to empty the building, “and could leave behind anything they didn't want”.
The supplied photos show the offices in various stages of abandonment, made up largely of desks, office chairs and stationery – and at least three full-size clay models.
Among the models are two exterior pieces, including a near complete sculpture of the Ronin four-door convertible previewed in 2023, along with the Alaska ute showcased at the same event.
The facility is described as having been left “in complete disarray,” including two large drums labelled as containing oil and coolant, along with “approximately 20 automotive-sized batteries”.
Most recently, creditors – including owners of the company’s only launched model, the Ocean SUV – learned that the intended new owner of Fisker’s remaining vehicles and customer service program would not be able to transfer critical vehicle data to its own servers.
Highlighting a previously unlikely risk of the electric vehicle era and its many startups, New York company American Lease discovered this week – after handing over “tens of millions of dollars” – that the 3000 unsold Ocean SUVs it had agreed to buy could not be operated without the data trapped in Fisker’s servers. The cause of this situation is unclear, although it is possible the data is encrypted, leaving its transfer to a new server blocked by its own security strategy.
“[American Lease] cannot overstate the significance of this unwelcome news, conveyed to it only after it has paid [Fisker] tens of millions of dollars under the Purchase Agreement,” the leasing company’s lawyers said.
“It is unclear at the present time what, if anything, Debtor representatives have known about the impossibility or impracticability of implementing Porting of the Purchased Vehicles, and when they learned or otherwise knew of that critical information.”
American Lease may now find itself among Fisker’s creditors, with its “tens of millions” already having been used to settle debts and other bankruptcy costs.
