Former CEO of Nikola, Trevor Milton, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2024|@nikolatrevor|X
President Donald Trump pardoned defunct Nikola EV truck founder Trevor Milton yesterday, erasing his penalties, which include four years in prison, a $1 million fine, and a $680 million restitution for defrauding the company’s investors.
Milton, accused of exaggerating Nikola’s tech and misleading shareholders about the capabilities of electric- and hydrogen-powered trucks, called the pardon “the best day I’ve had in five years.”
Trump defended the pardon, calling Milton “a good person” who had been unfairly targeted. The former CEO has reportedly donated $1.8 million to Trump’s re-election campaigns.
Once valued at $30 billion, Nikola filed for bankruptcy last month after selling just 600 trucks since 2022.
In 2020, short-seller Hindenburg Research unveiled evidence of how investors were shown a fake video of a Nikola prototype driving downhill. It quickly led to the EV maker’s downfall, and Milton stepped down.
Investors have lost millions due to Milton’s misleading claims about Nikola’s prototype trucks, which prosecutors said were inoperable.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has issued several controversial pardons, including for 1,500 people involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill.
His recent clemencies reached dark web marketplace Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence, Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer, and politicians Brian Kelsey and Rod Blagojevich, convicted of federal bribery charges.