NEW YORK — Utah billionaire Trevor Milton was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for lying to investors about his company’s hydrogen and electric truck technology.
Milton was the founder and CEO of Nikola Motors.
He was convicted 14 months ago on three fraud charges. The maximum sentence was 60 years in prison. Federal prosecutors asked for 11 years. Judge Edgardo Ramos ultimately decided on four years.
"Milton’s lack of remorse and failure to accept any form of responsibility for his actions only emphasize the need for just punishment in this case," prosecutors wrote in a court filing prior to sentencing.
Milton will also have to turn over property in Utah and pay a $1 million fine, the Justice Department said in a news release. He will also face three years of supervised release after completing his prison sentence. Restitution to victims will be decided at a later date.
Even after his sentencing, Milton said he believes he will not have to serve a single day behind bars. Judge Ramos' ruling allows Milton to only serve his sentence if he loses an appeal currently being mounted by his team of defense attorneys.
Milton said he is confident the convictions will be reversed. Shortly after the sentencing, rather than being handcuffed or photographed, he walked out of the courthouse and complimented Judge Ramos.
"I think we had a judge who was very passionate, that understood the situation," Milton said.
Milton's attorneys have tried to appeal before, arguing that one of the jurors who convicted him had a bias against rich people. The strategy did not work.
According to Inner City Press, Milton cried while addressing the court — rambling at times and insisting he did nothing wrong. He stated he was part Cherokee, that his family was victimized by ethnic cleansing, and how his dying mother described heaven to him — that his good deeds would be broadcast to the world. Milton's lawyers reportedly said their client wanted to be loved and praised like Elon Musk, arguing the actual loss to investors was $0.00.
Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom.
Aubrey F. Smith, Milton's cousin, spoke to FOX 13 News shortly after the sentencing. Smith was not an investor, but she said other members of her family were.
"I told them I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him," Smith said. "He didn't earn that money. He fraudulently took it... I was hoping he'd get the 11 years, especially in light of how many people he hurt and how much money he stole."
Smith's concerns with her cousin are not limited to fraudulent business practices. She filed a report with the Unified Police Department in 2020, accusing Milton of sexual assault in 1999.
Investigators documented the case despite the statute of limitations having expired at the time of her report. Milton was never charged.
Smith described being disgusted with Milton's "lack of remorse" at sentencing.
"It was disturbing for me to hear what he said," Smith said. "He even mentioned something about how 'loving people die on the cross,' which — to me — was just the epitome of manipulation, of a Christ complex."
Prosecutors accused Milton of making false and misleading statements about “nearly all aspects of the business” as it pertained to developing electric and hydrogen-powered trucks, as well as defrauding the public through social media and podcast interviews.
“Trevor Milton lied to investors again and again — on social media, on television, on podcasts, and in print,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “But today’s sentence should be a warning to start-up founders and corporate executives everywhere — ‘fake it till you make it’ is not an excuse for fraud, and if you mislead your investors, you will pay a stiff price.”
Nikola, a Phoenix-based automaker focused on developing semi-trucks vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology and electric batteries, was regarded as a competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla when it first went public in 2020, and saw its share price skyrocket. That year, it also entered into a $2 billion dollar partnership deal with General Motors.
Allegations of investor fraud later avalanched into a federal probe, an indictment and a conviction.
“Among the retail investors who ultimately invested in Nikola were investors who had no prior experience in the stock market and had begun trading during the COVID-19 pandemic to replace or supplement lost income or to occupy their time while in lockdown,” the Department of Justice wrote in its indictment of Milton in 2021.
The case revolved, in part, around the Nikola One, a prototype of a hydrogen-powered semi-truck. According to prosecutors, Milton claimed the vehicle “fully functions and works, which is really incredible” even though it was missing important parts and systems, including motors and a control system.
In 2018, Milton posted a video on Twitter showing the truck seemingly cruising down a flat road. But it was all smoke and mirrors, prosecutors say.
“In fact, to film these clips, the Nikola One was towed to the top of a hill, at which point the ‘driver’ released the brakes, and the truck rolled down the hill until being brought to a stop in front of the stop sign,” the Department of Justice wrote in the release Monday.
Milton, 41, founded Nikola in 2014 and stepped down as CEO in September 2020 — about three months after the company went public. Prosecutors said Nikola’s retail investors lost more than $660 million.
Shares of Nikola (NKLA) have since plummeted from their peak of more than $79.73 on June 9, 2020, and are currently trading under one dollar.
Prosecutors said Milton had a history of lying and engaging in deceptive business practices.
For example, they say Milton lied to the public about dropping out of college when, in reality, he was "expelled" for paying others to complete his work.
Prosecutors say he also lied about his company uPillar, claiming it "actually beat Amazon at what we were doing" and lied about "reserving the name" Nikola years before Elon Musk founded Tesla.
CNN's Eva Rothenberg contributed to this report.
