A federal jury in New York convicted Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton of securities fraud for what prosecutors said were his repeated lies about the development of the company’s zero-emissions trucks and technology.
The guilty verdict caps the downfall of Milton, who founded Nikola
NKLA,
in his basement in 2015 and took it public in 2020 at a valuation of $3.3 billion, when the company hadn’t sold a single truck. The company’s market valuation briefly exceeded that of industry giants such as Ford Motor Co.
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