Nikola founder sentenced to four years for lying about company’s electric cars

Trevor Milton had requested probation after being found guilty of misrepresenting his company’s technology to investors

Trevor Milton, the convicted founder of the electric- and hydrogen-powered truck maker Nikola, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday after a jury last year found him guilty of lying to investors about the company’s technology.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Milton misled investors by stating that Nikola had built a pickup from the “ground up”, that it had developed its own batteries even though he knew it was buying them, and that it had early success creating a “Nikola One” semi-truck that he knew did not work.