(Yicai Global) Jan. 8 -- Beleaguered Chinese tycoon Jia Yueting is poised to relinquish e-car start-up Faraday Future. A court in the British Virgin Islands ordered his shareholding in the company frozen. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ordered Jia's 33 percent shares in Faraday Future frozen pending the outcome of an appeal by To-Win Capital, one of the major investors in Leshi, a company Jia formerly owned. 

The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has jurisdiction in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Anguilla, Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands. It has unlimited jurisdiction in each member state. Season Smart, FF's ultimate controller, is registered in the BVI.

The court, also based in the BVI, last week favored To-Win Capital and froze Jia's 33 percent stake in the firm, which he held through strawmen and offshore companies. The judgment gives effect to an award the Beijing Arbitration Commission handed down against Jia in January. The founder of tech conglomerate LeEco Group got in hot water as heavy debt crushed his business last year. Jia stayed in self-imposed exile in the US after Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau demanded his return to China before last year's end. This latest development might just mark end game for Jia and his once mighty empire.