Nikola Corporation, a manufacturer of electric- and hydrogen-powered vehicles, has filed for bankruptcy in federal court, the latest turn in the ongoing Trevor Milton saga.
The company was founded in 2015 by Milton, a former resident of Summit County. Milton resigned from his position as executive chairman in 2020 after Hindenburg Research, an investment firm focused on activism in financial spheres, published a report accusing Milton of fraud.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Milton the following year, accusing him of securities and wire fraud. Milton was convicted in October 2022 and sentenced to four years in prison. He was also forced to forfeit a 4,678-acre ranch in Morgan County and ordered to pay a $1 million fine.
Throughout the case, prosecutors alleged Milton induced non-professional investors to buy shares of the corporation by making false and misleading statements about Nikola’s product and technology development directly to the public through social media and in interviews. They said retail investors lost more than $660 million.
Nikola continued its operations under new leadership, but the company’s stock declined dramatically after Milton’s indictment. Nikola’s stock dropped from $1,977 per share in June 2022 to 18 cents as of Wednesday morning.
Prior to the company’s bankruptcy announcement last week, shares were valued at 44 cents each.
Milton is appealing his conviction and has maintained the government erred in issuing an indictment. He posted about the bankruptcy filing on X the same morning it was announced.
“I saw this [Nikola] bankruptcy from a mile away,” Milton wrote. “When I left the company, I left them almost $1 billion in cash. We owned all of our assets, we were ahead and built the first production intent trucks in the United States and later delivered the first trucks in production. We had incredible partnerships. This is what happens when you frame a founder for a crime they didn’t commit, destroy the company’s brand, lie to shareholders, take huge salaries, pillage the company’s IP and run off into the sunset like the current management has done. Complete corruption that’s rewarded by the [government].”
The bankruptcy filings state Nikola has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors with an estimated $500 million to $1 billion in assets. The company owes between $1 billion and $10 billion in debt.
Milton was locally infamous for commuting from his home via helicopter.