- Trevor Milton left Nikola after he was accused of lying and exaggerating about its products.
- Legal filings and interviews with 38 people suggest Milton has a history of bending the truth.
- His friends defend him, saying he’s misunderstood. Milton declined to comment on this story.
Editor’s note: On Thursday, July 29, Nikola founder Trevor Milton was indicted on charges of making false and misleading statements to investors. The indictment alleged that Milton schemed to defraud investors into buying Nikola shares through statements about the company’s product and technology development from November 2019 to September 2020.
The below story about Milton’s tumultuous past originally published in March 2021, after Milton resigned as executive chairman of Nikola amid accusations of fraud leveled by short-selling research firm Hindenburg Research.
Trevor Milton was minutes from showing the world the fulfillment of his childhood dream. It hadn’t been an easy road. He’d failed out of high school, dropped out of college, watched his mother and step-mother die before his 22nd birthday, and gotten sued by the man who appeared ready to give him his big break as an entrepreneur.
