Justice Trump pardons convicted founder of e-vehicle manufacturer Nikola
US President Donald Trump has pardoned Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck manufacturer Nikola, who was convicted of fraud. The 42-year-old's conviction was "very unfair", Trump said in the White House on Friday.
29.03.2025, 04:39
SDA
Milton had been prosecuted because he was "one of the first people to support a gentleman named Donald Trump for president", Trump continued. "They destroyed five years of his life."
Milton was found guilty in 2022 of misleading investors about the technology of the e-trucks developed by his company. He was sentenced to four years in prison for this the following year, but remained at large while an appeal was pending. According to media reports, he and his wife donated more than 1.8 million dollars to Trump's re-election campaign in October.
Nikola filed for bankruptcy
The company was founded in 2015. Since then, Milton's team has been working on alternative drive technologies for trucks. In future, these were to be powered by electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The start-up also worked on charging stations for hydrogen trucks.
However, it was not a resounding success. Last February, the company filed for bankruptcy. Following his pardon by Trump, Milton announced the "greatest comeback story in America" in a video posted online.
