A federal grand jury charged Nikola founder Trevor Milton with three counts of criminal fraud for lying about "nearly all aspects of the business" to bolster stock sales of the electric vehicle start-up, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan accused the 39-year-old billionaire, who resigned as chairman in September, with two counts of securities fraud, including making false statements about the company, and wire fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed civil securities fraud charges against Milton on Thursday. The SEC asked the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York to permanently bar him from acting as an officer at a company that issues securities, to disgorge all ill-gotten gains and pay a fine.
"This is a very straightforward case, Milton told lies to generate popular demand for Nikola stock, Beginning at least in or about March 2020, when Nikola announced that its stock would become publicly listed, Milton became increasingly preoccupied with keeping Nikola's stock price high," U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss told reporters at a press briefing Thursday.
Prosecutors said Milton built an intricate scheme designed to pump up the company's stock for his own gain by lying about the company's products, technology and future sales prospects. They accuse him of using Nikola's deal to go public via a special purpose acquisition company to target amateur retail investors, some of whom lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Milton's scheme targeted individual, non-professional investors — so-called retail investors — by making false and misleading statements directly to the investing public through social media, and television, print and podcast interviews," according to the 49-page indictment.
Shares of Nikola were down by as much as 11% during early trading Thursday. The stock was trading at $12.85 a share, down by 7.4% as of midmorning.
Strauss said Milton was taken into custody earlier in the day in Manhattan and will appear in court later in the afternoon. A spokesman for Milton didn't immediately comment on the indictment.
Milton, who was the company's largest shareholder, held roughly $8.5 billion in Nikola stock at the height of the company's value. At one point last summer, Nikola's valuation surpassed Ford Motor, topping $31 billion.
The grand jury said Milton should forfeit all property "traceable to the commission of said offenses," which would likely include the more than $1 billion he earned when Nikola went public in June 2020.
Prosecutors said Milton "was motivated to engage in the fraudulent scheme in order to enrich himself and elevate his stature as an entrepreneur."
Nikola said in an emailed statement that it has "cooperated with the government throughout the course of its inquiry." The company emphasized that the allegations are against Milton and not Nikola.
"We remain committed to our previously announced milestones and timelines and are focused on delivering Nikola Tre battery-electric trucks later this year from the company's manufacturing facilities," the company said.
Many of the allegations regarding false and misleading statements were uncovered by short-seller Hindenburg Research.
In a report in September, Hindenburg accused Milton of making false statements about Nikola's technology in order to grow the company and partner with auto companies. The report, titled "Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America," was released two days after the company announced a deal with General Motors that sent both companies' shares soaring. The short-seller characterized Nikola as an "intricate fraud built on dozens of lies" by Milton.
Following an internal investigation, Nikola said in February that it found Milton made several inaccurate statements from 2016 through the company's IPO that misled investors.
Grand jury indicts Trevor Milton, founder of electric carmaker Nikola, on three counts of fraud - CNBC
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