4 years in prison for fraud: Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton

The founder of electric truck developer Nikola, who was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud, has been pardoned by US President Donald Trump, according to consistent reports. Trevor Milton made this public on his Instagram account. Trump himself has since confirmed this. However, there is no statement on the White House website. The US President claimed that Milton had done nothing wrong. He had heard that Milton had merely been "persecuted" because he had been an early Trump supporter.

Pardon after donating money to Trump

Milton was sentenced to several years in prison at the end of 2023 because, according to the court's conviction, he repeatedly told fairy tales to defraud investors and enrich himself. This involved misleading statements about the alleged achievements of his electric truck company and the number of allegedly binding vehicle orders. Milton also obtained a luxury ranch with false representations about Nikola and paid for it in part with stock options that turned out to be worthless. Milton himself has always denied his guilt, claiming that he was merely an inexperienced manager with too much optimism.

Milton now explained on Instagram that Trump had called him personally and informed him of the pardon. "He added that he was "incredibly grateful for his courage". The pardon is not just about him, but "about all Americans who have been ripped off by the government". That is "unfortunately a lot of people". Milton had not yet started his prison sentence because the appeal proceedings were still ongoing. Nevertheless, he still declared that he could now be with his wife and family: "It's done, it's over". Both donated 1.8 million US dollars to Trump's election campaign shortly before the US presidential election, writes the AP news agency.

After Nikola launched a decade ago with the plan to put fuel cell and battery-powered trucks on the road, the company went public in 2020. During the euphoria surrounding electric cars, the company was at times worth up to 29 billion US dollars. According to the news agency dpa, Nikola recently delivered semitrailers from – but not enough for a sustainable business. In February, the company filed for bankruptcy and declared that it could soon run out of money. The company's assets are to be sold and its own business discontinued, it said. The third largest creditor is the German automotive supplier Bosch, to whom Nikola owes over 17 million dollars.

(mho)