GreenTech raised $141M from Chinese investors, promised 4,500 jobs, and built nothing

GreenTech Automotive was founded in 2009 by Charlie Wang, a Chinese-born lawyer who graduated from Duke Law and worked at Cadwalader. In 2010, it acquired EuAuto Technology, a Hong Kong-based EV company that made the MyCar — a two-seat neighborhood electric vehicle designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, with a top speed of 25 mph and a price around $15,000. The acquisition was meant to give GreenTech a ready-made vehicle and a Hong Kong engineering base.

Wang's real strategy was fundraising. Between 2009 and 2013, GreenTech raised $141.5 million from Chinese investors through the EB-5 visa program, which grants US permanent residency to foreigners who invest $500,000 in job-creating projects. Wang promised to build a $2 billion factory in the Mississippi Delta that would produce 250,000 vehicles a year and create 4,500 jobs. The state and Tunica County added $6 million in incentives.

The factory never produced meaningful output. Employees later told investigators they were instructed to pretend to assemble cars when Chinese investor groups toured the facility. A 2016 state audit found GreenTech had spent only $3 million on assembly equipment and never employed more than 94 workers. The factory closed in January 2017. In February 2018, GreenTech filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Investors and creditors recovered just $7 million of the $141.5 million. The case became a symbol of EB-5 visa fraud — a Hong Kong EV startup used as a prop in a cross-border investment scheme.