Founder of embattled electric truck startup Nikola charged with fraud
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Trevor Milton was indicted on fraud charges on Thursday, the US Department of Justice said.
His EV startup, Nikola, had been accused of misleading investors by a short-seller.
Milton resigned from Nikola in September as the company's plans unraveled.
Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck maker Nikola, has been indicted on charges of making false and misleading statements to investors, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.
The indictment said that, from November 2019 to September 2020, Milton schemed to defraud investors into buying Nikola shares through statements about the company's product and technology development.
Nikola did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Milton's legal team maintained his innocence and criticized the Department of Justice's investigation in a statement to Insider.
"Trevor Milton is innocent; this is a new low in the government's efforts to criminalize lawful business conduct. Every executive in America should be horrified," the spokesperson said. "Mr. Milton has been wrongfully accused following a faulty and incomplete investigation in which the government ignored critical evidence and failed to interview important witnesses."
Last September, Hindenburg Research said in a paper that it was short-selling Nikola stock and labelled the company a "fraud," a charge it denied. Amid the fallout, Milton resigned, Nikola canceled its consumer pickup, the Badger, and a wide-ranging deal with General Motors all but fell through.
Hindenburg alleged, among other things, that a promotional video depicting one of Nikola's early semi trucks driving down the road was faked by pushing the non-operational truck down a hill.
In February, Nikola disclosed, following a review by an outside law firm, that both it and Milton had made several statements that were partially or completely inaccurate.
Read the original article on Business Insider
