Nikola Founder Who Said 'We Will Catch Up with Tesla' Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison

Trevor Milton, the founder of American hydrogen truck company Nikola, has been sentenced to prison on fraud charges for promoting incomplete technology to inflate stock prices and deceive investors.

On the 18th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others reported that the New York Manhattan Federal Court sentenced Milton to four years in prison. Milton, who founded Nikola in 2015, gained industry attention as the 'second Tesla' by presenting plans to build and sell large trucks powered by hydrogen fuel. Nikola promoted its hydrogen trucks and technology under development, and at one point, its stock market capitalization surpassed that of the traditional American automaker Ford.

However, investigations revealed that Milton filmed videos that disguised vehicles without hydrogen tanks or empty shells that were impossible to mass-produce rolling downhill as if they were driving under their own power.

[Image source=TASS Yonhap News]

Milton's fraudulent activities were exposed in a 2020 report by short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, causing Nikola's stock price to plummet. The damage Milton caused to investors through these lies is estimated to be $660 million (approximately 860 billion KRW).

According to U.S. prosecutors' sentencing guidelines, the scale of the damage could warrant up to 60 years in prison, but prosecutors requested an 11-year sentence.

Earlier, during Milton's guilty verdict process last year, prosecutors defined his actions as fraud targeting investors' money. The defense argued that Milton was overly optimistic about the company's technological feasibility and had no intent to commit fraud, requesting probation, but this was not accepted.