Trevor Milton, the former CEO and founder of innovative electric truck company Nikola Motors, has been found guilty on three of four counts of fraud. The fraud charges stem from misleading statements Milton made while he was the acting chairman and CEO of Nikola.

Milton, who rose to the rank of CEO billionaire, built his fortune on lies and misleading the public and investors.

Nikola Motors rose to fame at the start of the pandemic after the innovative company went public. Before going public, Milton made bold claims that his company had made significant progress in producing hydrogen-fueled Class 8 semi trucks that could stand up to electric rivals including Tesla’s prototyped electric truck. Milton also touted that his company was going to partner up with GM to produce a hydrogen-electric pickup truck dubbed the Badger.

In a scathing report by the tech news outlet Electrek, Milton’s lies began to pile up in 2018 starting with a dubious patent lawsuit against Tesla. The $2 billion lawsuit alleged that Tesla’s Electric Tesla Semi design had been copied off of the Nikola One truck design. Nikola would eventually drop the lawsuit.

Nikola Motors also began to lose ground after it failed to bring vehicles to production by deadlines. Despite this, the company kept putting forward new prototypes and touting that it had secured deals with investors and trucking companies. The company even hyped that it had contracts in place for pre-orders of the truck.

Electrek and a Bloomberg report also began to document that Milton pushed lies when promoting Nikola One. During a promotional conference in which a prototype of the Nikola One truck was on display, Milton lied when he said that the truck was functional. An engineer who had worked on the truck later came out publicly stating that the truck was a ”pusher prototype” and in fact not operational.

In a further push to sway investors and the public, the company unveiled a promotional video, “Nikola One Electric Semi Truck In Motion.” The video touted the Nikola One as a fully functional vehicle that would be available for public use. It would later be revealed that the promotional video did not feature a functional truck. Instead, the truck was merely a prop used to imply that the company had pulled off production of a fully functional electric truck.

According to a bombshell 2020 report by Hindenburg Research, uncovered evidence showed the truck being towed up a long low incline hill. After reaching the top of the hill, the truck was released so that it could roll down a hill and create the illusion that it was a functional truck.

After the company was called out on the allegations about the hoax video, it wasn’t long before the company admitted that the prototype was actually not working when the video was filmed. The company contended that the truck was “in motion” but that the company itself never explicitly said that the truck was driven by its own power.

Nikola Motors threatened Hindenburg with a lawsuit over the claims; however, the Securities and Exchange Commission later got involved in the dispute. Following the SEC’s investigation, Nikola Motors was ordered to pay $125 million to settle the fraud claims.

Milton eventually resigned from his position as CEO in late 2020. After Nikola's stock grew as a result of the hype, Milton cashed out a majority of his shares, eventually settling in a $32.5 million luxury ranch. The stock would later hit one of its lowest price points of roughly $3.00 a share after trading at a high of $65.00 a share in June 2020.

Following the charges, US Attorney Damian Williams shared in a statement that Milton lied "over and over again" and that his behavior should serve as a warning to anyone "who plays fast and loose with the truth to get investors to part with their money." Milton is awaiting sentencing and could face up to 20 years behind bars.