Essay by Eric Worrall
Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, who claimed to have developed prototype hydrogen and electric vehicles, has been convicted of deceiving investors.
Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, found guilty of fraud
By Matt McFarland, CNN Business and Reuters
Updated 6:30 PM EDT, Fri October 14, 2022Washington, DCCNN —
Nikola founder Trevor Milton was convicted Friday by a U.S. jury of fraud in a case alleging he lied to investors about the electric and hydrogen fuel cell company’s technology.
The jury found Milton guilty on a count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud after deliberating for roughly five hours. Milton was acquitted on another count of securities fraud. Milton potentially faces years in prison.
Prosecutors had alleged that Milton made false and misleading statements about “nearly all aspects of the business,” including that Nikola had a fully functioning prototype despite Milton knowing it was inoperable. Milton had also claimed that Nikola had built an electric and hydrogen powered pickup from the ground up with Nikola parts and technology, despite not doing so, according to prosecutors.
“Trevor Milton lied to Nikola’s investors — over and over and over again. That’s fraud, plain and simple,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict was released. “Let this case serve as a warning to anyone who plays fast and loose with the truth to get investors to part with their money. It won’t end well.”
…
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/14/business/trevor-milton-nikola-verdict/index.html
I doubt this will be the last case of green fraud. The political desperation for progress, and the magnitude of easy government money sloshing around the hydrogen, EV and renewable industries in my opinion is likely attracting fraudsters like moths to a flame.
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“Let this case serve as a warning to anyone who plays fast and loose with the truth to get investors [or taxpayers] to part with their money. It won’t end well.”
Amen.
Watch out, human CO2 crooks, all you solar, wind, electric vehicle, carbon storage, cladding, etc. scammers…..
In the end: TRUTH WINS.
Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, found guilty of fraud
With all these battery powered grown-up toys entrepreneurs cashing on his name, the old Nikola Tesla must be spinning in his grave faster than one of his AC machines, if he is still there, that is.
I pity those who must use deceit about human CO2 to fool people into buying their product.
I despise the electric vehicle makers and other crooks who use lies about CO2 to sell their product.
Most of all, I DETEST those who use my name to sell their schemes.
Straight up question Janice. You ever been in a Tesla?
Simon… It’s past time to end all government (read: socialist) subsidies to the “alternate energy” vehicles! Instead, inform potential buyers… they are buying and driving the next huge environmental problem!
simon is just trying to change the topic.
Simon knows where all the Cobalt and Nickel is for manufacturing all those batteries – at the bottom of the fairy’s garden.
Wrong Simon – IT DOES NOT EXIST.
I’d be in fear of my life, you never know when the fuel tank will fail and the vehicle spontaneously combust
I have Simon.
Marvelous technology.
Been in a Bushmaster troop carrier too.
Again, marvelous technology.
But neither of these conveyances will meet the everyday needs of all people.
So why are governments intent on forcing inappropriate technologies on all the populace?
This is the critical question abut EVs.
Why is that relevant?
Straight up questions, Simon. Do you own a Tesla? Did the taxpayers pay for a quarter or more of it? Do you charge it from your back yard wind turbine and your rooftop solar panels? Did you dig the cobalt out by hand from a mine in Africa? Do you get your water from downstream of a Red Chinese rare earth processing plant?
Straight up questions, Simon.
Do you own a Tesla? Yes. Love it. Amazing vehicle. No ICE vehicle in the price brakect can touch it for speed and tech.
Did the taxpayers pay for a quarter or more of it? No. None of it was taxpayer supported.
Do you charge it from your back yard wind turbine and your rooftop solar panels? No. Pay 12cents a kilowatt at night (.07 US). It is incredibly cheap to run. About $2 to do 100 miles.
Did you dig the cobalt out by hand from a mine in Africa? Silly question. Do you pump out your own oil?
Do you get your water from downstream of a Red Chinese rare earth processing plant? No I don’t live in China. But if your point is batteries are environmentally hazardous…. then you are right, but so is the oil industry. And batteries are becoming less detrimental to the environment. Lots of research and development happening in this area. For example, LFP batteries are cobalt-free.
So you pay $0.12 per kWH for grid sourced energy to recharge at night. A good reason why it’s $0.12 per kWH, your grid is supplied by FF. So your Tesla basically runs on Natural Gas, Coal and other FF generation (that powers your grid)
Australia energy mix
What TDS-boi Simon neglected to include was that he lives in New Zedland where they have lots and lots of cheap hydro electricity.
… and lots and lots of government subsidies for electric vehicles. https://www.transport.govt.nz/area-of-interest/environment-and-climate-change/electric-vehicles-programme/
No one asked.
He’s also forcing other people to pay for the roads that he’s driving on.
Not forcing anyone to do anything.
Simon believes that as long as the politicians he votes for do the forcing, he’s innocent.
By not paying road use taxes, you are forcing other people to pay for the roads that you use.
Ummm wrong.
Ummm simon, you are wrong.
I’ve been in one: they’re nice toys.
I’m sure you’re glad you’re rich enough to own a Tesla. However, most people don’t have that kind of cash to waste on a toy. Hence they buy affordable, efficient, and long lasting ICE venicles.
The problem is that those people who can’t afford a Tesla, are being taxed to help Simon pay for his.
Nope. Make it up mark.
You aren’t paying excise tax on the electricity you charge it with, tax that gasoline users pay to the Treasury ostensibly to maintain the roads that you drive on, although in Canada it just does to general revenue. In my province of Ontario, if EV drivers paid the same kg-km tax on electricity for charging their cars as ICE drivers pay on gasoline, their bill would more than double the meter charge. At your low retail electricity rates, it would be nearly triple.
Poor little Simon, he actually can’t see what is in front of him.
The sooner the solar powered flying car hits the market, the better.
Just needs a few more subsidies and away we go.
Let’s hope you don’t run out of juice when you’re in your Tesla like my mate’s husband did. He was in Scotland and couldn’t find a charger. He could see plenty of petrol stations though. Chortle!
The Tesla owners who don’t go places because they can’t make the trip never talk about those trips. They only talk about the short commutes they make on a daily basis. I know a young Tesla owner who couldn’t go on a golf weekend and missed a football game at his alma mater because his Tesla would need to recharge but there was no place to recharge conveniently or quickly. It’s hard to charge your car in a football stadium parking lot.
Yeah good for you Simon.
Your money to spend on any legal indulgences you fancy.
As we all are.
But as I asked earlier, why are governments intent on imposing this technology by edict on all the population?
That’s the objection I and many others have about the approach with EVs.
While Henry Ford said that people could have a Model T in any color as long as it was black, that wasn’t limiting vehicle choices to Model T’s only.
In other words, other people paid for you to buy your favorite toy, and they continue to subsidize the operation of your toy.
What a good socialist you are.
Nope. I got no subsidy.
Simon actually seems to believe that the direct purchase subsidy his Tesla received is the only subsidy.
1) Telsa enjoys many tax breaks
2) By creating artificial demand, the government subsidized the R&D costs,
3) You aren’t paying road use taxes.
4) Many government and private businesses allow EVs to charge for free.
4) In many cases, EVs are allowed to use HOV lanes at times, are allowed to use toll roads without paying, as well as other freebies.
You are being subsidized out the wazoo, even though you refuse to admit it.
How long does it take to fill it with coal power?
I don’t.
Do you own a Tesla? Yes. Love it. Amazing vehicle. No ICE vehicle in the price brakect can touch it for speed and tech.
Well you certainly don’t buy a Tesla for it’s looks.
A model 3 (basic) will set you back about $45,000 and is as bland as most of it’s owners, has terrible build quality, difficult to sell, expensive to maintain and insure.
You do however get to meet a lot of other bland Tesla owners as you all sit around with flasks of tea for hours waiting for the dam things to charge in a service station.
Or, for $35,000, you could have bought a Ford Mustang GT 5L V8 which will do 0-60mph in 4 seconds, sounds like a Balrog and makes you feel like a living god.
Slight downside, woman will want to have sex with you all the time.
On your last point…that Back Seat is a little cramped for the task though
“Or, for $35,000, you could have bought a Ford Mustang GT 5L V8 which will do 0-60mph in 4 seconds,”
Nice car. Still slower than the Tesla and significantly slower over the first 100 yards which is when you want the acceleration to overtake. And I don’t need a noisy car to get women, unless it is a noisy woman….
According to the IEA LFP batteries “come with lower energy density and are therefore better suited to shorter range vehicles.”
SUVs make up “half of all EV models available globally and require larger batteries to travel the same distance”
It is true they have lower density, but the range they offer is still plenty for travelling. The base model Tesla 3 has LFP batteries and will easily do 250 miles on a charge. Thats plenty of driving before a stop is needed.
Hi, Simon.
Whether the Tesla is fun to drive or has any other redeeming qualities is irrelevant to my point.
Electric vehicles rely on DECEIT to sell.
Moreover,
EV’s are FAR inferior to ICE vehicles:
1) in longevity (you can replace a motor — no battery replacement for EV’s — thus, people like that Finnish guy are simply blowing them up with dynamite).
2) in range (esp. in cold weather when running a heater is essential).
3) in fire suppression (whether the source of the fire is internal or external).
4) in NOT using OPM to fund the purchase price (at all).
5) in hauling/towing capacity.
6) in speed of “fill-up.” Recharging an EV in superfast mode will ruin the battery (as Rud Istvan pointed out recently, “read the fine print”).
7) in NOT using the name of a man of great personal integrity, Nikola Tesla, to push the sales of a product imbued with ruthless cunning and deception.
As a matter of principle, I will NEVER ride (much less own) in an EV — unless in an emergency (e.g., I badly sprain my ankle while jogging far from home and no one else can give me a ride and night is coming on fast and it is 35 deg. F. and there is no tree branch I can use for a crutch).
Bye for now.
Good to see you 🙂
Janice
There once was a race from Chicago to the Tesla Museum on Long Island between a new 2013 Tesla S and a 100 year old 1913 Ford T.
The Model T was limited to surface street for being unable to travel at freeway speeds AND developed a gasket related fuel leak in the 100 year old carburetor which needed to be rebuilt on the fly, they were back on the road in a few hours. The Tesla won the race (some might state “needless to say”) but only by 45 minutes. Had the carburetor gasket not failed the 1913 Ford would have beaten the Tesla by 1hour 15 minutes
I would handicap the Model T (T! not the A, even — wow) and say that the T won. And, as you pointed out, without equipment fail, they won.
Given a driving time of 14 hours from Chicago to Long Island, NY, if the race had been only 100 minutes, that old car was only beaten by 5 seconds!
Documented thoroughly by Car and Driver magazine. It’s a great article.
Tell you what Janice you go for a ride in a Tesla and I’ll go to church. We can both be saved…..
Simon! 🤨🙄🙂
You don’t need to go to church to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. You don’t need to go anywhere. You can just ask Him right where you are — right now.
Still praying 😊
Don’t have to go to church you say? That makes it tough for me to get you into an EV…..
Simon, Simon,…
I will never willingly ride in an EV.
Are you an EV Dealer sales consultant? Heh. “Okay, lady, what’s it gonna take to get you into this fine EV? You say you go church? Well! This wonderful car will get you there in time to enjoy the prelude. Aaaand if you’re running late, it’s quiet enough to help you sneak into the back pew with nobody but the ushers seeing you.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN you would rather WALK to church even in a snowstorm ….. ESPECIALLY in a snowstorm??!”
Sorry, Simon. Better show me what you have in used. You must have a few ICE vehicles on the lot….🙂
How about this: you pay for my food and I will give YOU a ride in my Chevy.
Next time you’re in the Seattle area.
Take care.
Janice
Been watching the Durham show, TDS-boi?
Who cares how fun it is to drive, if the promotional material is based on a fraud?
” if the promotional material is based on a fraud? That is so funny coming from you. But I’ll bite. What fraud?
That it does anything for the environment.
BTW, I still see that simon is trying to push the line that anything he doesn’t want to believe must be wrong.
“BTW, I still see that simon is trying to push the line that anything he doesn’t want to believe must be wrong.”
That line is getting pretty boring Mark. You can say the same about anyone.
It’s a line that is taught to all young socialists. As a result it shows whenever a socialists tries to engage in thought.
Just as all Christians believe in Jesus, all socialists believe that they are always right.
Nope, can’t even afford the taxi fare in one.
It must be awfully nice for you to be able to afford to buy one ‘unsubsidised’.
As for ‘the need for speed’, only a complete hypocrite could mention that whilst pretending to save the planet.
You really don’t get this green stuff, do you.
That read like a bit of jealousy there hottie.
It’s more like pity.
Fair enough it is a bit sad he can’t afford a Taxi ride after working as a cop to protect people all his life. OK Mark I will give you that one…
As usual, Simon has to completely misquote what others have said.
(BTW I gave you an “as usual”, just so you can feel superior.)
That’s very kind.See you are a nice man really.
How do you tell the difference between a Green Scammer and a Green Non-scammer??
The Green Scammer is trying to sell you something useless (a bill of useless goods)
EV (not allowed to recharge)
Wind Gen (dead calm)
Solar Thermal (needs Gas assist)
Solar PV (only good 4 hours)
Battery Storage (LiON)
Renewable (ruinable)
All will require far more mining/drilling than the current FF economy
The Green Non-scammers will EAT the Greens that aren’t as far left as them find r new t going far enough.
So a ‘business’ guy who lies to investors/ tax payers goes to jail.
BUT, politicians who lie to us their entire term, scamming us out of our tax dollars is free to continue, even after they leave office.
I don’t see the difference ?
I’m not for politicians lying, either. Did something I said imply that I distinguished the two?
For some lies, a politician WILL go to prison — it’s just usually not worth the expense/effort/time to prosecute them for it.
Good to get a fraud conviction, but, since it is in Federal Court, the Brandon Administration can pardon him, because, you know, good intentions. Wait for it.
Only if the Big Guy got his 10%.
“Green” Vehicle
My sister who lives in Cape Coral said that another home on Sanibel that had survived the hurricane burned down yesterday because an EV in its garage spontaneously combusted.
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/10/15/rick-scott-demands-action-on-electric-vehicles-transformed-into-ticking-time-bombs-by-hurricane-ian/
Well, they didn’t burn any fossil fuels.
What seems clear is that Nicola was a giant scam from the get go – even the name is an attempt to capitalize on Tesla’s publicity. What’s more amazing is that it’s still in business as a public company. Current stock price is $3.06, down from a high of $64. I suspect it will never actually produce and sell a legitimate product, but it will still probably have millions in revenue from government subsidies.
TAXPAYER subsidies
This type of thing got me a good job in Michigan in 2004, lots of money for “green” vehicle technology R&D, and it is still flowing here near Detroit. (HYZON hydrogen power) In my case it was for a hydraulic hybrid UPS truck that the EPA in Ann Arbor was working on, but of course it was a big failure, not commercially viable, but what can you expect from folks who have never worked in industry? they think their ideas are winners but they are just career bureaucrats.
Oh no more greenwashing. When are they going after guys like Gore and Obama?
Nobama’s untouchable. Everyone will get thrown under the bus and/or fall
on their own swords to “protect the Crown”!
If it’s an EV bus, they’re fried like that French EV bus inferno. No escape.
Donald Trump to EV bus in Paris…
This case wasn’t hard. They claimed to have a working truck prototype, and showed investors video of it going down a road at speed. Turns out they towed a nonfunctional vehicle up a hill, and filmed it rolling down. They claimed to be producing hydrogen at a cost 81% less than industry, when they had produced none ever. They claimed to have propriety inverters, when in fact they were buying them from Cascadia and removing the branding.
Old investing adage: when something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
At least Tucker built something that actually worked (better than the major competition)
Bent businessman cons people. Any excuse will do…
“”A woman in Japan was fooled out of 4.4 million yen (Rs 24 lakh) by a scammer pretending to be an astronaut. Local media reported that the 65-year-old woman was tricked into believing that a man she met on Instagram was a Russian astronaut stuck on the International Space Station, unable to afford his way back home.””
https://metrosaga.com/fake-astronaut-tricks-woman-for-rs-24-lakh-claiming-he-needs-money-to-return-to-earth/
What counts is how easily you are fooled
Good thing he didn’t claim to be Martian.
Of course, there WAS a Russian astronaut that was stationed in space for months waiting for funding / personnel to allow him to come home. Not on the ISS, but still close to true.
Both MIR and ISS have emergency vehicles that have enough capacity to hold everyone on the respective stations attached to the station at all times.
The astronauts can come home at any time, the funding was to get the next crew up so that the station won’t sit there empty. (If anything goes wrong, you need someone on hand in order to fix it.)
But you can’t evacuate just one in an emergency. Leaving the station without an emergency evacuation vehicle. If 1 has to evacuate due to an emergency All must go or a second emergency will doom one or all remaining
In space, emergencies tend to be an all or nothing affair.
It’s hard for me to see a whole lot of difference between Trevor and the mainstream renewable energy crowd. They both claim to have systems that work when in fact they don’t. They both bamboozled investors with their false claims. The mainstream renewable guys are worse in my view because they are fleecing honest tax payers. They both promise grand solutions by technology that doesn’t exist. The only difference I see is the government is a part of the scam with the mainstream renewable guys where as Trevor was going it on his own.
Just like the south sea bubble then.
It took 300 years for the UK to pay off that debt, although some authorities say it hasn’t yet.
Be careful with H, it can blow up in your face….
Aren’t ALL green vehicle promoters guilty of this? Maybe some will now be a little more cautious!
Scams are best pulled on somebody who lacks knowledge of what you’re trying to sell. This works really well with congress because most of them are lawyers and they barely have knowledge of the law. As long as you don’t try to sell them law, almost any scam will work well.
From the first time I heard about this, I pretty well figured it was a scam. The tip was they didn’t talk much about how they were getting around the power problem. Fuel cells might work but between the size of the cells and the tanks to hold the hydrogen, they take up a lot of room and no breakthroughs were discussed. Tesla had a similar issue with space for batteries but they discussed the skate. Once I understood you would be sitting on a fire bomb, I understood how they got around the battery problem.
It has been clear for a long time that the motor and controls are very doable. As Nikola didn’t discuss power, it indicated they were still up against the same problem that everybody else had.
The interesting thing is according the the web site, they are still open for business.
https://nikolamotor.com/energy
The question is not, “who is crooked”, it’s “who isn’t”.
Just another example of a con man masquerading as a climate activist when his real goal was to defraud naive investors and the public in general. Phony as a 3-dollar bill.
https://youtu.be/88fWUZhYb04
This raises a logical conundrum. As the whole green caboodle is based on a lie and therefore fraudulent is then defrauding the believers in that fraud itself a fraud or in fact a correction?
Yes this is fraud. So why doesn’t the same verdict apply to those who are clearly and intentionally living about climate change and CAGW in order to profit professionally financially and through falsely enhance reputation. The climate gate emails should lead to convictions and jail time.
Actually the phenomenon is rather common, and even well meaning, honest persons succumb to a terrible mental/emotional disease and end up scamming people. That is:
“The Messiah Syndrome”. Once you convince yourself you have some idea that can “save the world” you descend into ever more delusional and often desperate cycles. “Oh such and such proof of concept almost works, but we need more funding to make it so, and then we can truly save the world. I know it is just around the corner just a bit more work and resources will allow me to save the world”…..
So even well meaning, honest persons get duped into this self delusion, and then they reason that a little fib is OK, because they are saving the world – and the lies to self and others become grander, and deeper, and so on as you spiral out of control.
ANYTIME you believe your idea, invention, concept, device can “save the world” – STOP and do some deep self analysis for this is an enticing trap that almost always leads to very bad things for the self and others! (this applies to all those Karens and useful idiots who believe wind/solar is going to save the world – it’s a lesser form the Messiah Syndrome, and reason goes out the window as long as you believe your support for even utter madness will save the world)
I do not know if this guy was honest and simply self deluded, or if he was a scammer from the start. But I have seen a dozen or more examples of actual rational, honest persons get into this negative spiral caused by a Messiah complex.
That’s what rolling a green stock fraud downhill gets you.
“I doubt this will be the last case of green fraud.” and it’s definitely not the first by a loooooong shot.