Company hopes to close chapter
Trevor Milton, the founder of newfangled EV manufacturer Nikola, has been found guilty of fraud. Milton already left the company in 2020 due to the uproar.
The American Nikola presented itself last decade as a promising start-up with a full focus on electric mobility. With the Badger, an electric pick-up, it wanted to target a fast-growing market in its home country of the United States. It also worked on an electric truck, the Nikola Tre. The plans convinced General Motors to team up with Nikola for the Badger, while Iveco hooked up for the Tre. However, it came crashing down like a house of cards not long after, when founder Trevor Milton was charged with deception and then resigned. Now it turns out that Milton was indeed wrong.
The 40-year-old former CEO was found guilty of fraud on Friday, reports Reuters. According to the jury, Milton did indeed deceive shareholders and other stakeholders with nice talks about Nikola. Prosecutors alleged that Milton claimed that Nikola developed his battery technology himself and that the brand’s truck did not work at all, even though he claimed it did. The ball started rolling when investor and shareholder Hindenburg Research investigated and came across foul play.
It is not yet clear what punishment Milton faces. Nikola, now led by former Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller, says he is pleased to be able to close this chapter. It remains to be seen when we will hear from the company again. Last summer, patent drawings of Nikola surfaced, but nothing concrete has emerged from them so far.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl