Trevor Milton

New York federal prosecutors charged Trevor Milton, the founder of the electric truck company Nikola, with engaging in an audacious scheme to defraud investors, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday July 29 2021. He was convicted in October 2022 on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, and acquitted on an additional securities fraud count. .He was sentenced to four years in prison in December 2023, He had in 2021 also agreed to pay $125 million to settle civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Milton wasaccused of using his massive social media platform and TV appearances to mislead retail investors in order to inflate and maintain Nikola’s stock price. The scheme resulted in him receiving tens of millions of dollars in personal benefits. Federal prosecutors say Milton falsely claimed, for instance, that Nikola’s first semitruck prototype could be driven under its own power and even created a misleading video that purported to show it. Milton also falsely claimed that the company was producing hydrogen at a cost that was four times less than the prevailing market rates. Milton, who resigned as Nikola’s executive chairman in September 2020, surrendered to authorities.