Nicola founder accused of fraud against US investors

Nicola founder accused of fraud against US investors

Trevor Milton, the founder and former boss of electric vehicle manufacturer Nicola, is to be prosecuted in a fraud case. According to the New York Attorney’s Office, the 49-page indictment includes three fraud charges – including those of investors who lost a lot of money due to misinformation about the listed company’s products.

Nicola was founded in 2015. Since then, the Milton team has been working on alternative driver technologies for trucks and larger SUVs. In the future, these will be based on electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The startup also worked at charging stations for hydrogen trucks.

The plans were mostly theoretical. According to Jupiter, Milton is now accused of announcing that, among other things, Nicola has created a “fully functional” semitrailer prototype – at the same time, Milton knew it was “not working”. The allegation is that he wanted to persuade investors to buy shares with his statements.

Milton resigned after allegations of fraud against the company last September. Earlier, Hindenburg Research had accused Nicola of being a “complex fraud” based on Milton’s many lies. Business partners will be “misled” by startups by “falsely claiming to have important technologies”, it said, among others.

The indictment alleges that investors lost “tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars” due to Milton’s fraud. The company lost 7.5 percent in pre-trading.

AFP