The Securities and Exchange Commission closed its investigation into the Fisker electric car startup last September, nearly a year after the investigation was opened.
TechCrunch learned that the investigation was closed when the financial regulator responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in January. The SEC’s FOIA division said it identified “approximately 21.7 gigabytes of electronically stored records” related to the investigation. The agency typically does not make records available when an investigation is open, and explained in a follow-up email that it was “closed in September 2025.”
It is unclear how far the investigation has progressed. The SEC announced the existence of an investigation in October 2024 in the bankruptcy case of Fisker. The agency wrote at the time that it had sent subpoenas to the company and that it may have to “request or submit additional documents in the future related to its ongoing investigation.”
A spokesperson for the organization declined to comment. Founder and former CEO Henrik Fisker did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The closure of the Fisker investigation comes amid a sharp decline in enforcement actions and settlements during President Trump’s second term. The SEC initiated 313 enforcement actions in 2025 — the lowest number in a decade and down 27% from the last year of President Biden’s term, according to an analysis by law firm Paul Weiss. Only four of those enforcement actions were against public companies. Overall payouts are down 45% from 2024.
Fisker was one of the last remaining electric car companies still under investigation by the SEC. In the past few years, the agency settled fraud or other charges against Nikola, Lordstown Motors, Canoo, Hyzon Motors, and others. In 2023, it closed the investigation into Lucid Motors without a charge.
The only known active investigation remaining in the electric car launch is the one related to Faraday Future, which is now almost four years old. In July 2025, the SEC sent Faraday and several executives “Wells Notices,” or letters notifying the subject of investigators recommending enforcement action. No action has been taken since those letters were sent, however, and Faraday’s administrative records show that he has not responded to Wells’ notices.
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA
|
June 23, 2026
Fisker filed for bankruptcy in June 2024 amid numerous problems with its first EV, the Ocean SUV. The company spent years making bold promises about developing innovative new technologies, but backtracked on those ideas multiple times. It also had a serious financial crisis as it approached its collapse. It used Chapter 11 bankruptcy to sell the ride-hailing company and liquidate its other assets.
