Trevor Milton, founder and former executive chair of Nikola, was on three counts of fraud for misleading the electric vehicle company’s investors about its business and technology.
In all, he was found guilty of one count each of securities fraud as well as two counts of wirefraud. He was cleared of one count of securities fraud. His sentencing is set for January 27th. He could spend up to 20 years behind bars.
Milton was A federal grand jury convicted him last year of the charges. Prosecutors used numerous lies in interviews with podcast hosts and other media appearances to support their claims. Prosecutors alleged he had lied about “nearly all aspects of the business” in an effort to boost the stock of the EV maker.
The SEC started an investigation into the company After Hindenburg Research publicly Nikola of staging an “elaborate ruse” to mislead the public about the status of its electric semi, Nikola One. While the company had published a video purporting to show the truck “cruising on a road at a high rate of speed,” Hindenburg said the truck had actually been “towed to the top of a hill on a remote stretch of road and simply filmed it rolling down the hill.” The company ultimately paid In 2021, to settle civil charges against the SEC
During the trial, Milton’s defense lawyer argued that the video was merely “special effects” and that “it’s certainly not a crime to use special effects.” But prosecutors raised several other false claims by Milton, who was extremely active on Twitter. According to The Times, prosecutors said Milton also lied about having “binding contracts with trucking companies” that in reality were cancelable reservations for vehicles. Prosecutors also cited Milton’s claims about making “green hydrogen” when the company had not yet produced any.
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