Nonetheless, in accordance with testimony, Mr. Milton stated on Twitter and different boards that Nikola was accountable for “100%” of the know-how within the Badger, portraying G.M. as little greater than a supporting participant. G.M. pulled out of the partnership quickly after the Hindenburg report, and the Badger was by no means produced.
Different Nikola executives together with Mark Russell, the chief government, and Kim Brady, the chief monetary officer, warned Mr. Milton repeatedly that his statements might backfire, prosecutors contended. The executives even staged an “intervention” the place they tried, unsuccessfully, to get Mr. Milton to hew to the reality, in accordance with witnesses.
Mr. Mukasey, the protection lawyer, pointed to inside Nikola emails through which the executives praised Mr. Milton’s media appearances. “They have been telling Trevor what an excellent job he was doing,” Mr. Mukasey stated.
The convictions embody a cost that Mr. Milton defrauded a person who bought him a ranch in Utah. Mr. Milton paid for the ranch partly with Nikola inventory choices that proved to be nugatory.
The acquittal on one of many securities fraud counts supplied Mr. Milton a little bit of aid. A conviction on that cost would have uncovered him to a most sentence of 25 years.
Nikola, based mostly in Phoenix, continues to function, producing a restricted variety of battery-powered vehicles in cooperation with established firms together with IVECO, an Italian truck maker that’s manufacturing Nikola automobiles in Germany. Michael Lohscheller, an auto business veteran who was beforehand the chief government of the German carmaker Opel, was named president of Nikola in August. .
Stefan Hartung, chief government of the German electronics maker Bosch, stated in an interview this month that he nonetheless believed in Nikola. Bosch, one of many world’s largest makers of parts for the automobile business, is supplying gasoline cell know-how for Nikola vehicles being developed.