Nikola (NKLA) founder Trevor Milton was found guilty of three counts of criminal fraud on Friday in a case accusing him of spreading lies about the electric truck startup for his own personal benefit.
A federal jury in Manhattan found Milton, 40, guilty of two counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud, with the top charge carrying a prison sentence of up to 25 years, according to Bloomberg and other news reports. Milton pleaded not guilty to all of the government’s charges.
Nikola gained notoriety in September 2020, when short seller Hindenburg Research alleged that the company had spun up an “ocean of lies” to deceive investors. Memorably, Hindenburg accused Nikola of releasing a deceptive video making it seem as if its Nikola One semi-truck were traveling under its own power at a high rate of speed when, in fact, it was just rolling down a hill.
Trevor Milton, founder and former-CEO of Nikola Corp., exits the Manhattan Federal Courthouse following an appearance in New…
This article was written by and originally published on finance.yahoo.com