Cash-Strapped Fisker Founder Drops His Salary to $1 to Fund Bankruptcy

If you haven’t heard, Fisker is bankrupt. Out of money and, apparently, out of ideas, the soon-to-be-defunct EV startup is throwing darts at the wall, desperately hoping something sticks. And according to TechCrunch, one of those darts of desperation is accepting a one-dollar salary.

During recent bankruptcy proceedings, John DiDonato, Fisker’s restructuring officer, was asked whether company co-founders Henrik Fisker and his wife, Geeta Gupta-Fisker, were still on the company payroll. DiDonato confirmed that they were but couldn’t or wouldn’t divulge how much they were being paid. His only response was that the Fiskers’ salaries were “undertaking a modification” and possibly “some deferrals.”

Well, the mister carries the title of CEO, while the missus is the CFO and COO. So it’s probably bad form to continue receiving a massive executive-level salary after having laid off nearly 90% of your employees, filing for bankruptcy, announcing Ocean SUV fire sales hotter than the previous fire sales, and can’t afford to build parts to cover recall issues.

Linda Richenderfer, a lawyer for the U.S. Trustee, pressured DiDonato with a litany of questions on the matter. Her concern was that every opportunity to free up capital had been exhausted, especially with Fisker’s aggressive push to sell its remaining inventory.

Within a week, the Fiskers announced they were reducing their salaries to a single dollar. The price is right, even if the timing makes this act of goodwill look less good. Of course, we won’t be privy to what they were making up to that point, but in a 2022 regulatory filing, the Fiskers’ listed salaries were the California minimum wage of $62,400. Oh, plus cash bonuses of $710,000.

But with cost-savings measures in place as well as extra cash coming in via existing vehicle auctions and interest from bank accounts, DiDonato thinks Fisker can fund its bankruptcy case for another few weeks. Also, a lot is riding on whether the inventory sale to American Lease will be approved, but that decision won’t happen until July 16.

Not too long ago, Fisker’s valuation was as high as $8 billion. Now, it’s been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and used models of its lone production model are selling for $10,000, versus its initial new-car launch price of nearly 70 grand.