Nevada's state treasurer, Dan Schwartz, is wondering whether Faraday has a future.
"My sense is we're not getting the whole story, and that really is the issue," he said. "I'm not persuaded that the money is there to complete the project."
"My questions are all about how they finance this," he continued. "I'm afraid it will never be financed and implode in the middle" of the project, leaving Nevada taxpayers on the hook for millions in state incentives offered to Faraday.
At the center of Schwartz's concern is Jia Yueting, the Chinese entrepreneur backing Faraday Future.
Schwartz, who traveled to Beijing in February to learn more about Jia and has been studying his activities since then, said Jia finances Faraday with borrowed funds that are backed by shares in Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp., a company he founded.
"The stock is worth [about] half of what he started with," Schwartz said.
Currently trading at about $6.80 a share, it's down 45% from its high in May last year. From December 2015 to June this year, the stock didn't trade at all -- it was suspended at the company's request for reasons that remain unclear.
Faraday's bill payment problem with Aecom demonstrates, at the very least, a cash-flow issue.
Aecom needs the cash to buy materials and pay subcontractors at the Faraday factory site, set on a bleak alluvial landscape in North Las Vegas near Nellis Air Force Base. Construction hasn't begun.
Aecom deferred questions to Faraday.
Faraday must post a $75-million performance bond before the state issues bonds to pay for infrastructure around the site, including roads, water lines, electric connections and sewer pipes, Schwartz said.
In a special session in December, pushed by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, the state legislature granted Faraday a $335-million incentive package, including $215 million in tax breaks.
There will be no infrastructure without the performance bond, Schwartz said. "My position is if these bonds aren't going to be paid, I'm not going to issue them," he told a local radio station this year.
The company had told him it expected to post the bond by September, "but right now they're just pushing dirt around," Schwartz said. Workers are currently grading the 900-acre site to prepare for construction.
The plant, if built, is expected to cost $1 billion over 10 years and employ about 4,500 workers.
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