Trevor Milton, founder of bankrupt hydrogen trucking startup Nicola, convicted of fraud, was relentless by President Trump, the White House confirmed to TechCrunch.
Milton was convicted in October 2022 of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud in connection with the claims he made about Nicola’s advances into investors. He was sentenced to four years in December 2023. He was on $100 million bonds while appealing the sentence.
The pardon comes just weeks after Nicola filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company was working with Delaware’s Bankruptcy Court to sell its business and hoped to close such transactions by mid-April.
“It’s no wonder why the trust and trust in the Department of Justice have not been eroded. I hope that prosecutors will feed them and that Americans will stop trusting the judicial system again,” Milton said in a statement.
Milton was found guilty at the ju trial. He was represented in that trial by Brad Bondi, a partner of law firm Paul Hastings and a brother to current U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Now, Milton, a free man, says he plans to release a documentary that he believes will tell his side of Nicola’s story.
Milton founded Nicola in 2014. The company was not in the spotlight until 2020. 2020 became one of the first electric vehicle companies by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). It quickly became a hot trading stock, especially after General Motors announced its $2 billion shares in September of that year.
However, the situation at the company changed quickly. A few days after GM’s announcement, short-selling investigator Hindenburg Research released a report containing allegations of fraud committed by Milton. The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation and GM has left the transaction. Milton eventually resigned, but at a 2023 ruling hearing he claimed he resigned to help his sick wife.
Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York indicted Milton in July 2021, claiming in interviews on social media, television, print and podcasts that he “issued a false and misleading statement about Nicola’s products and technology development.” They said Milton made these claims to “induce retail investors to buy Nicola’s shares.”
After he was convicted, the judge ordered Milton to pay nearly $168 million to his previous company, following an arbitration lawsuit between the two sides. The money was to be considered in Nicola’s bankruptcy case. Nicola planned to use these proceeds to resolve class action lawsuits filed by shareholders against the company.
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