The founder of Nicola has been accused of fraud against American investors

Trevor Milton, founder and former boss of electric vehicle maker Nicola, is to be prosecuted for fraud. According to the New York Attorney’s Office, the 49-page indictment contains three fraud allegations – from investors who lost a lot of money due to misinformation about the listed company’s products.

Nicola was founded in 2015. Since then, the Milton Group has been working on alternative driver technologies for trucks and larger SUVs. In the future, these will be powered by electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The startup also worked at charging stations for hydrogen trucks.

The plans were mostly theoretical. Milton is now accused of announcing that Nicola has developed a “fully functional” semi-trailer prototype – but at the same time Milton was well aware that it was “not working”. The allegation is that he wanted to persuade investors to buy shares with his statements.

Milton resigned after allegations of fraud against the company last September. Earlier, the investment firm Hindenburg Research had accused Nicola of “complex fraud” based on Milton’s many lies. Business partners will be “misled” by the startup “false claim that they have important technologies”, among other things.

Investors have lost “tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars” through Milton’s fraud, the indictment says. The company’s stock lost 7.5 percent in pre-trading.

hcy / jes