Nikola founder Trevor Milton was sentenced Monday to four years in prison in connection to defrauding investors of the embattled electric- and hydrogen-powered truck maker, according to Reuters.
The punishment was far lower than the 11 years prosecutors had requested at Milton’s sentencing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
But it was substantially more than the non-jail sentence of probation sought by Milton’s attorneys.
“I did not intend to harm anyone and I did not commit those crimes levied against me,” Milton told Judge Edgar Ramos before being sentenced, Reuters reported.
Milton has shown little to no remorse for his actions, prosecutors said.
In a letter to Ramos on Sunday, prosecutors wrote that the judge should take into account Milton’s “profound denial of accountability and insistence on blaming others.”
Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola Corp., exits court in New York, US, on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022.
Stephen Yang | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Milton was convicted in October 2022 on two counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. He had faced a recommended sentence of 60 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for those crimes.
Milton became an overnight billionaire when he took Nikola public through a deal with a special purpose acquisition company in June 2020. The company was quickly considered to be one of the most promising EV startups – valued at its peak at more than $30 billion – until allegations regarding false and misleading statements were uncovered by short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Prosecutors compared Milton to disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison last year for defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup.
“Just as Holmes lied about Theranos-manufactured blood analyzers, Milton lied about the operability of the Nikola One semitruck,” prosecutors wrote to Ramos ahead of the sentencing.
Milton has attempted to distinguish himself from Holmes, whose company was…
Read the full article here