Trevor Milton lied to investors again and again to make the electric truck company he founded, Nikola Corp., look better than it was, a prosecutor told the jury in his criminal trial.
“This is Trevor Milton,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told the jurors in his opening statement Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. “He repeatedly lied to investors about his company, and he made a billion dollars by doing so. He started a company that was supposed to make zero-emission trucks, and he lied about all the important parts of the business.”
Milton did it “to lure innocent investors into buying more of his company’s stock,” Roos said.
It didn’t take long for Roos to get to the details of a 2016 event at which Milton unveiled the debut version of what he said was a hydrogen-powered truck. Roos said the truck was missing key parts and had never been functional. The symbol for hydrogen was stenciled on the side even though there was no fuel cell in the ve…