SEC has issued a subpoena to bankrupt carmaker Fisker

Fisker Inc. has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating the bankrupt Southern California electric vehicle maker could be under investigation by Wall Street’s top cop, according to a court filing.

SEC subpoenas, which typically seek either records or testimony, are confidential, but a mention of the agency’s demand for information was included in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing this week in Delaware, where the troubled automaker filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 18 under a heavy debt load. The subpoena was included in a list of ongoing legal proceedings against Fisker; the filing did not provide any details about why the agency issued the subpoena.

As the company’s stock price has plummeted, shareholders have experienced large stock losses. Fisker is a defendant in a pending shareholder class-action lawsuit and five shareholder derivative complaints regarding a sharp drop in its stock price last fall. Derivative suits are filed by shareholders on behalf of the company and typically accuse officers or directors of wrongdoing.

Shaneeda Jaffer, a white-collar defense attorney at Benesch in San Francisco, said that although it’s an “absolute possibility” that Fisker is the target of an investigation, the agency also issues subpoenas to parties that might be able to provide information about other probes.

“Or you could be a subject of an investigation where you haven’t necessarily been put in either of those buckets. Companies and individuals receive subpoenas from the SEC all the time,” she said.

If wrongdoing is found, SEC investigations can lead to civil allegations or referrals to the Department of Justice for potential criminal investigation and possible charges.

A spokesperson for the agency said it does not comment on whether it is conducting an investigation. Fisker also declined to comment.

Fisker, based in Manhattan Beach until it moved to Orange County earlier this year, was founded in 2016 by auto designer Henrik Fisker. It went public in 2020 amid a surge of investor interest in electric vehicles, raising about $1 billion in capital, and was valued at close to $8 billion a year later.

Fisker’s stock reached an all-time high of $31.96 in March 2021 before dropping below $10 the next year and falling off a cliff late last year to under $2 a share. It now trades for less than a penny.

Last year, it released its first model, an SUV called the Ocean that was intended to compete with Tesla’s Model Y. But it had trouble meeting production goals at its contract manufacturer in Austria and delivering the vehicles to customers. The car also was plagued by software glitches. The company was reportedly in talks this year with Nissan to build a pickup truck domestically but failed to reach an agreement.

The lawsuits similarly allege that Henrik Fisker, the company’s chairman and chief executive; his wife, Geeta Gupta-Fisker, the company’s co-founder and chief financial and operating officer; and others, including board members, violated their fiduciary duties and/or securities laws. The company declined comment.

The allegations generally stem from a series of events that began with a news release issued in August 2023 that stated Fisker would produce up to 23,000 Oceans that year. However, it disclosed in November that in the third quarter it had built only 4,725 of the vehicles, with 1,097 delivered to customers.

The company also announced in November that its third-quarter results would be delayed due to the departure of its chief accounting officer, whose replacement resigned within days. When it released the results, Fisker said it had to make “material adjustments” to its financials and had identified a “material weakness in internal controls.” The company’s share price fell that month by more than half, to less than $2.

James Lucas, 52, a Fisker shareholder who said he lost more than $100,000 investing in the company, said shareholders also are angry over a series of media appearances by Henrik Fisker during which he touted the company’s prospects, even as its fortunes declined.

“There were a lot of comments made by mostly Henrik Fisker that had these kind of broad visions about the number of vehicles that were going to be produced. Whether it was just a failure to execute, who knows,” said the L.A. County resident. “As an investor you take senior managers’ word on a lot of things.”

Lucas, who participates in a Telegram group of Fisker investors, said he has filed complaints with the SEC against Fisker citing multiple issues and believes other aggrieved investors also have done so.

In March 2023, before the company had released the Ocean, Fisker boasted on CNBC that the automaker would make money on the first cars it shipped because its vehicle was being built by its contract manufacturer. “I can just sit counting the cash,” he said during the interview, which included a projection that Fisker would sell 1 million cars in 2027.

One year later on March 1, Fisker told an interviewer on Bloomberg TV that the company would “conservatively” deliver 20,000 to 22,000 to a new dealer network it had decided to put together. “In fact, we have a few dealers telling us, are you sure you can deliver us enough cars because we think we can sell more cars than what you’re offering us right now,” he said.

That same day, he told Yahoo Finance that he was confident the share price would rise above $1 a share to avoid being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. “I feel very optimistic about our future,” he said. The shares were delisted the next month.

Fisker produced only somewhat more than 10,000 vehicles before it filed for bankruptcy.

With the stock now trading for less than a penny in bankruptcy, Henrik Fisker has suffered big losses too, with his stake in the company worth little to nothing. But he also sold about $20 million worth of stock in 2021 well before the steep decline.

The company said that Henrik Fisker was not speaking to the media.

Andrew Fiorella, a securities litigator in Cleveland also at Benesch, said it was highly unlikely Fisker shareholders would be able to recover their losses, given that secured debt holders and others with claims against the bankrupt company have priority over common shareholders.

“There’s almost certainly going to be nothing left at the end of the day,” he said.

Fisker is not the only California startup electric vehicle maker that has experienced troubles amid a sales slowdown that is at least partially attributable to a rise in interest rates that has made financing more costly.

Rivian in Irvine and Lucid in the Bay Area, which both went public in 2021, also have seen sharp price declines as the hype over EVs has faded. However, each company has deep-pocketed institutional investors, and both are still operating.