Trevor Milton (42), the founder of the electric truck manufacturer Nikola, condemned for fraud, is from US President Donald Trump (78) was pardoned, as Milton announced on Thursday on social media. “Today I was personally and unconditionally pardoned by Donald Trump. He called me personally to tell me,” said Milton In an Instagram post
, in which you can see it at the wheel of a car. “It’s over,” said Milton. The law enforcement officers could no longer ruin his life.
As the “Financial Times
“Writes, however, has not yet been an official confirmation of the pardon. Neither Trump himself nor his team have commented on Milton, and so far there has been no indication of the alleged pardon on the website of the US Ministry of Justice.
Milton, whose company has now passed insolvent, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2023 after a jury found him guilty that he had lied to investors about the company’s technology. He also had to pay a million dollars. He had previously made headlines with a spectacular fake video for an investor show in which the electric truck, which was allegedly produced by Nikola, was presented. But instead of driving yourself, the truck in the advertising film was only rolled down a slope, as it later turned out.
The process had caused a sensation not only because of this obscure story. It was also about the question of how far start-up founders can go to investors when promoting their business ideas-after all, Nikola was one of the hottest bets in a while Electric car.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, Milton incorrectly claimed to have built a revolutionary truck to investors, which is actually a product of General Motors was. He also did not develop the batteries himself – but bought it. The prosecutors had asked for a 11 -year sentence.
In October 2022, he was convicted of transfer fraud in an indictment point for securities fraud and two charges, and he was acquitted in another indictment point for securities fraud. “Over the course of many months, they used their considerable skills on social media to praise their company in a way that was materially wrong,” the judge ruled at the time and pointed out that investors from Nikola suffered serious losses. The public prosecutor put the loss for investors at around $ 650 million. Milton had led to his defense that he had never intended to deceive his donors. With the only four -year prison sentence, the jury would have done everything right, said Milton at the time.
The company, which had also been led by ex-Opel boss Michael Lohscheller (56) in 2020 in 2020, applied for bankruptcy according to Chapter 11.